instructions

ACA Vibrec™ Help and Instructions

ACA Vibrec™ Software

November 10, 2006

“Software to Implement the ACA Methods for Applying Vibration Dampers.”

Author: John Alexiou Email: [email protected]

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Table of Contents Table of Contents .................................................................................................. 2 Quick Start .............................................................................................................. 3

Installation ........................................................................................................... 3 Running Vibrec................................................................................................... 3 Registration ......................................................................................................... 3 Line Damper Solution - Example ..................................................................... 4 Guy Wire Damper Solution - Example ............................................................ 7 Support and Bug/Reporting............................................................................. 7

Vibrec™ Program Options ................................................................................... 8 Vibrec™ Main Window Features ........................................................................ 8 Damper Application Wizard................................................................................ 9 Line Damper Solution Details ............................................................................... 9

Main Solution Window..................................................................................... 10 Standard Cable Selection Window .............................................................. 13 Custom Cable Entry Window......................................................................... 14 Ruling Span Entry Window.............................................................................. 15 Build Recommendation Wizard Window ..................................................... 16 Recommendation Details Window............................................................... 17 Multiple Recommendation Editing ............................................................... 24 Spacing/Sales Report...................................................................................... 24

Guy Wire Damper Solution Details.................................................................... 26 Main Solution Window..................................................................................... 27 Tower Level Definition and Editing................................................................ 28 Spacing/Sales Report...................................................................................... 28

Vibrec™ Versions & Features............................................................................. 29 Index...................................................................................................................... 30

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Quick Start Installation To install Vibrec™, insert the CD and run StartHere.exe. This usually runs automatically when you insert the CD. Then click on the Install Vibrec picture. The installation procedure first extracts and then installs the “Microsoft .NET Framework” library unless it is already installed (as it is on computers with Windows XP). This takes a few minutes and sometimes it appears as if nothing is going on. When the libraries are successfully installed the Vibrec Setup Wizard screen appears. This will install Vibrec™ on your computer.

Running Vibrec Once Vibrec is installed there should be an icon on the desktop that says ACA Vibrec Software. Double click on this icon once and wait for the initialization to complete. On certain computers the initialization may take up to 1 minute to complete.

Registration Before Vibrec launches for the first time it asks for an email address and a registration number. The email address you must enter is the same as the one shown in the purchase order ACA processed to generate the registration number. Any licensed version of the software should have a registration number sticker inside the CD case. If the number was lost, a new number needs to be issued by contacting ACA for assistance. If you want a different email address attached to your registration number also contact ACA for assistance. If you are using a Shareware/Demo version of the software then click on the “Shareware Version” option, enter your email address and click on proceed. Once the registration has been processed the main application is being launched and the user must accept the end user’s license agreement (EULA) found on the CD.

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Line Damper Solution - Example 1. To recommend dampers and spacers on a ruling span click on

“File/New” menu and then select Line Dampers and click on “Create”. Enter a title for the solution and click on the “Solution/Environment” menu. Select flat terrain (up to 20 mph, steady wind), enter 15°F AAMT and click on “Apply”.

2. Then click on “Solution/Cables/Add Standard” to select a conductor to use in our solution from the ACA Conductor Database. Under “Type” select the conductor type such as ACSS and then type in the “Designation/Codename” filter the word “TERN”. A Selection of different TERN and BITTERN conductors appears in the list below. Select “ACSS/HS TERN” from the list and click on “Add”. Close the cable selection window by pressing the “Close” button.

3. Click on “Solution/Spans/Add” to add ruling span information to the solution. In the large text area on the right enter the spans included in a ruling span separated by commas, spaces or each placed in a new line. For example type “800, 1050, 740, 986” and on the left the ruling span information is filled in automatically. Alternatively you can copy the span lengths from Excel (from a column of cells) and right click-paste inside the text area. Click on “Add Span List” to add this ruling span in the solution. Close the ruling span entry window by pressing the “Close” button.

4. Click on the “Solution/Dampers/Apply Dampers” menu to recommend dampers for the solution. Make sure that “ACSS/HS TERN” is selected in the conductor selection and pick the guarding type that needs to be applied on the conductor. In this case we select armor rods by selecting “AR” in the guard list. On the ruling span list select the “RS=921 ft” entry we created earlier and then type the initial and final cable tensions in the text boxes below. In this example enter “3800” for the initial tension and “2250” for the final. The build the recommendation using this cable, ruling span and tensions click on the ‘Build Recommendation” button. If the recommendation was built successfully then a check mark should appear next to the ruling span we applied dampers to. Since there is no other combination of cables and ruling spans in our solution close the recommendation wizard by pressing the “Close” button.

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5. Notice that in the main solution window a recommendation appears in the list on the right, and damper quantities have been calculated for the damper summary. To view the details of the recommendation (or to tweak it) double click on the recommendation, or selecting it and clicking on the “Solution/Properties” menu.

6. The recommendation details window shows a graphic of the ruling span on the bottom with all the dampers recommended attached to it. In general the program recommends two dampers per span with additional dampers next to the dead-ends. To examine the effect of the application of armor rods click on the ‘None” button in the guarding section and the program will remove the armor rods from the recommendation and recalculate the number of dampers needed. You will see that only one damper per span is needed now. To understand why, look into the values under the protected span lengths in the damper section. In this case, 0-276 ft require no damping, 276 ft - 1124 ft require one damper and over 1124 ft require two dampers. Since all the spans in the ruling span are smaller than 1124 ft one damper is recommended. To view/print this information graphically click on the damper spacing tab (on the top of the window) and the click on the “Print” button. The graphic with title “Protection Ranges compared to Ruling Span” (seen below) shows graphically what span lengths require two, one or no dampers and where the current ruling span fits within those ranges.

In this example the ruling span is fairly close to the 1124 ft protection limit and thus an engineer may decide to be safe and apply additional dampers although our recommendation may not require additional dampers.

7. To make this line a three bundled configuration requiring spacer-dampers instead of Stockbridge dampers click on the “Recommendation Information” tab and select three-bundle configuration. Immediately the dampers disappear from the span view below and small circles indicate the locations of the spacer-dampers. To view the spacer-damper spacing for each span click on the “Detailed Span View” tab and use the left right buttons to scroll through the spans. For each span the spacer-damper spacing is shown based on the “ACA Staggered Method” which is proven to provide superior protection against aeolian vibration. All this information can be printed on a report using the steps described below.

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8. First close the recommendation details view by pressing the “Cancel” or “Apply” button depending if you want to keep the changes or not. Then select “Reports/Spacing Report” from the menu and enter a file name where the report will be saved. The report generates and shows up in a web browser window (as it is produced in HTML). When printed (or made into PDF) each conductor is placed on a new page and all the heading/summary information is shown on the first page. When spacers are used then for each recommendation all the spacer spacings are included as shown below.

Damper SummaryDamper Catalog Quantity Bolt (in) Torque

(ft*lbs) 1706-09 0 1/2 25

283457.287HT 18 1/2 25

Recommendations for : ACSS/HS TERN 45/7 Str 795.0 Kcmil Span Information Tensions Guard Total Dmpr Qty Protection Ranges (ft) Item

Ruling (ft) Max. (ft) # of Spans Initial Final Type 1706-09 N/A Level 0 Level 1 Level 2 921 1050 4 3800 2250 NONE 0 0 0-1072 1072-2145 2145-3217

1 Subspan Length (ft) # of Spacers Catalog 283457.287HT Spacing (ft) for 3 bundle

800 4 92 232 152 232 92 1050 5 122 243 192 128 243 122740 4 77 226 134 226 77 986 5 113 238 167 117 238 113

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Guy Wire Damper Solution - Example 1. To recommend dampers for guy wires click on “File/New”, select

“Guy Wire Damper Recommendation” and click on the “Create” button.

2. Type in a title for the solution and then click on the “Tower/Add Level” menu to start adding tower levels.

3. In the panel that appears on the left select the number of wires on this level. For example select “3”.

4. Either type in the wire diameter (decimal or fractional inches) or select the appropriate wire from the pull-down menu. For example select “13/16”.

5. Type in the guy wire length in feet below. Alternatively you can type in the abscissa and ordinate dimensions of the wire (the horizontal and vertical leg lengths) separated by comma such as “240, 450”

6. Type in the guy wire tension in pounds below. For this example type in “21000”

7. To add this level to the tower click on the “Add” button. Repeat steps 4 through 7 with the following values: wire diameter “1-1/8”, wire length “656” and tension “36000”.

8. Press the “Done” button to close the new tower level panel. 9. To generate the guy wire report click on “Reports/Spacing Report”

and type in a name the report is going to be saved as. 10. The report contains a damper summary, which is like a bill of

materials for “ACA 2200 Series Dampers”. In addition, in contains the quantity and placement of the dampers for each tower level defined earlier. An example is shown below:

Damper SummaryCatalog Total

Quantity 2205 3 2208 6

Tower Levels Dia Length Tension B[3] A[4] T[2]

Level Wires (in) (ft) (lbs) Catalog Quantity[1] (in) (in) (in)1 3 13/16 510 21000 2205 1 33 42 52 2 3 1-1/8 656 36000 2208 2 43 55 67

Support and Bug/Reporting On line support, FAQs and the latest downloads available at www.vibrec.com. To collect multiple issues/bugs during program operation click on the Help menu, under Support, Add/view buglist. Here you can add/view/delete small bug descriptions (each must fit on one line) and eventually email this list back to ACA for processing.

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http://www.vibrec.com/


Vibrec™ Program Options To set the program options click on the “Tools/Options” menu. Under common options a user can select a default solution type, which will be used when the program starts to create a new empty solution. In addition, the user can make the program remember it’s current position and size on the screen and use when the program loads. Under the “Line Dampers” and “Guy Wire Dampers” tabs the default titles for new solutions can be set, in addition to the default solution folder where files will be saved. Also under the “Line Dampers” tab there is the option to add or not spacers to the recommendation for bundled configurations (enabled by default).

Vibrec™ Main Window Features The main window contains a main menu and a tool bar on the top, a status bar on the bottom and the main work are in the middle. The main work area can contain multiple Vibrec solutions each describing a set of recommendations.

Status Bar On the status bar a summary of all cables, spans, recommendations, dampers and spacers defined is shown. In addition the license level of the program as well as the licensed user’s email address.

Main Menu

File menu The “File” menu has the standard “New”, “Open” and “Exit” commands as well as the command “Close All” which closes all the open solutions. When a solution is active then the menu command “Explore” opens up a windows explorer window in the solution file exists in.

Tools menu The “Damper Application Wizard” can be accessed at any time from the tools menu. When a solution is active ACA damper catalog information is available under the “Tools/Damper Catalog” command. This is available for standard Stockbridge 1700 series dampers, for 3300 series speed grip spacers, for 48X457 series spacer-dampers and for 2200 series guy wire dampers.

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Window menu All the currently open solutions show up in the bottom of the window menu as well as commands for closing, tiling and switching between solutions.

Help menu Under the “Help” menu the user can read the program instructions (this file), can call the bug reporting features and can view the “About” information for Vibrec. This dialog shows the program version as well as the licensing information. In addition, there an option to automatically fill-in the email and registration number each time the program launches.

Toolbar The toolbar is a shortcut for some commonly used menu commands. In contains the following buttons:

Create a new solution in Vibrec. Open a previously created solution file. Save the current solution. Add standard conductor to the line damper solution. Add ruling span to the line damper solution. Add recommendations to the solution.

Generate an HTML report for the solution.

Damper Application Wizard The damper application wizard allows the user to select a conductor and everyday tension values and the program reports on the damper placement and other vibration properties. The user can alter the recommended damper and produce a report detailing the application of the selected damper.

Line Damper Solution Details Some of the features and capabilities of Vibrec was described earlier in the section named “Line Damper Solution Example”. In this section, all the features and capabilities of the Line Damper Solution part of Vibrec™ are described in detail.

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Main Solution Window The line damper solution window contains the following sections and features. Additional menu commands become available when a solution window becomes active. Also, these menu commands are available by “right-clicking” into the solution window.

Solution menu

Environment Brings up the environment/terrain dialog. See Environment paragraph below for details.

Cables Conductors can be added to the solution. See Standard Cable Selection Window and Custom Cable Entry Window for more details. A Selected Conductor in the Solution Tree can be edited, or deleted from the solution.

Spans Ruling Spans can be added to the solution. See Ruling Span Entry Window for more details. A Selected Ruling Span in the Solution Tree can be edited, or deleted from the solution.

Dampers Dampers can be applied to a solution at any point from this menu or from the “Dampers” toolbar button. See Build Recommendation Wizard Window for more details into adding dampers into a solution. If recommendation selected in the Solution Tree can be viewed/tweaked, or deleted from the solution.

Properties Depending what is item is selected in the solution window either in the Solution Tree or the Recommendation List the appropriate window opens up to view/edit that item. For example if a recommendation is selected in the Recommendation List and the user clicks on properties then the Recommendation Details window is shown allowing the user to change the tensions and guarding of the recommendation. Typically this command is equivalent to double clicking.

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Reports menu

ACA Spacing Notes This shows the ACA damper placement rules which ACA established through the years by collecting and analyzing field and lab data. The goal of Vibrec™ has been to implement these rules using modern computer software.

Sales Report This generates a sales report as described in Spacing/Sales Report

Spacing Report This generates a full report as described in Spacing/Sales Report

Header Information and Signatures The title for the solution as well as its creation date is shown on the top portion of the solution window. The title is used as the default filename for file saving the solution and generating reports. The header information is used to sign solution files with the user’s email address. When a solution file is loaded this signature is checked for validity. When a solution is saved and the current user is different from the original author, then Vibrec can update the signature such that the solution author is the current user.

Solution Tree On the left side of the solution window there is the solution tree. It contains a hierarchical view of the current solution. First, the solution title is shown. Second the environment and terrain information is shown. Third all the conductors defined in the solution are shown. Under each conductor, all the ruling spans defined are shown. When a recommendation is defined for a combination of conductor and ruling span then the tension and guarding information for the recommendation is shown under the ruling span. This arrangement allows for a quick scan of the solution to see which conductors and ruling spans combinations have already been defined and which have not.

Environment The area in the middle top shows the wind speed for the terrain selected, as well as the temperatures that the recommendation tensions are measured at. The “Modify” button brings up the environment information dialog window, allowing the user to change this information as well as link to some climatologic web pages thank might contain wind and temperature statistics for the area interested.

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The wind speed entered represents the maximum sustainable steady wind speed for the corresponding terrain. Typically wind speeds higher than the ones suggested here yield turbulent flow that does NOT induce vibrations in the conductors. The AAMT temperature represents the average of the yearly minimum temperatures over many years. The AAT temperature represents the average of the annual average temperature. Although this varies by location a lot, it is an industry standard to set AAT to 60°F.

Damper Summary The area underneath the environment is the damper summary. In the damper summary Vibrec™ adds up all the dampers used for each span defined and then groups the quantities by the ACA catalog number. Even if the quantity recommended is zero it still shows the catalog number entry so that the user can know which damper would fit on the conductor anyway.

Recommendation List and Filtering Once recommendations have been defined as described in the Build Recommendation Wizard Window section, they are shown as a list or the right side of the solution window. Each item in the list shows the following information. First is the conductor this recommendation applies to. Then is the span this recommendation applies to. Next is the guarding (if any) applied to the conductor as designated by the keyword “LG” for line-guards, “AR” for armor-rods, or “AGS” for armor-grip suspension. Next are the initial and final tensions in pounds. The next column corresponds to the quantities and types of dampers and spacers that are recommended. Examples and explanations are shown below: “12x1707-17”

12 dampers of ACA catalog number 1707-17. This may mean 1 damper per span for 12 spans.

3x(6x1707-17)

6 dampers of ACA catalog number 1707-17 on a three-phase wire for a total of 18 dampers.

“3x(13x3321)”

A Three-phase wire, each with with a two-bundle conductor and 13 spacers of 3321 ACA catalog number. The total number of spacers 3x13=39. In this case, a 6 span ruling span may only require dampers on only 3 of it’s spans due to selective damping (see ACA Spacing Notes for more information on selective damping).

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Next is the protection range for the recommended protection level. This shows up to how many feet can a span be and still be protected with the same number of dampers. Next are the ACA spacing variables “A”, “B”, “C”, and “D”. Refer to the ACA Spacing Notes for details on how these variables should be used. Up to the release of Vibrec™ all ACA damper recommendations reported only on these variables and let the end user decide where to place the dampers based on the ACA Spacing Notes and these variables. As an exercise please read through these notes and then using the “A”, “B”, “C” and “D” values reported here try to figure out how many dampers are needed and where to place them. Finally, any notes for that recommendation appear in the end. These may include flags about Selective Damping and other important information for the proper selection and placement of dampers.

Standard Cable Selection Window This is the quickest way to add a conductor to the current solution. You active the standard cable selection window by clicking on the “Solution/Cables/Add Standard” menu item.

Selection and Filtering On the top left there is a pull down box with the supported conductor types for Vibrec. Select the appropriate type such as “ACSR” for all ACSR conductors. To the right of the conductor type pull down box there are three filtering boxes. The first one is for the conductor size such as “795” to select all “795.0 Kcmil” conductors, or “4/0” to select all “4/0 AWG” conductors. The next box is for conductor stranding such as “54” to select all “54/7 Str.”, “54/19 Str.” and”54/37 Str.” conductors. You can be as general or specific you want. For example, by typing “7” all “ACSR/TW Type 7” conductors appear, but also all “7/1 Str.” and “24/7 Str.”. Finally the last filter box is for the conductor codename, designation or description. For example by just typing “TE” the following conductors are displayed: “ACSR/TW TEAL”, “ACSR/TW TERN”, “ACSR/TW BITTERN”, “ACSR/BRITISH OTTER”, “ACSR/AW SPARATE”, “ACSR DOTTEREL”, “ACSR TERN”, “ACSR BITTERN”, “ACSR/BRITISH ANTELOPE”, and so on. These are some of the conductors that have the letters “TE” in their description. To add a conductor in the current solution, select it from the list of conductors and press the “Add” button. To add more conductors change the conductor type, define a filter, select a new conductor, and press the “Add” button again. When finished adding conductors press the “Close” button.

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Detail View When a conductor is selected the “Details” button brings up the conductor details window. This shows all the properties of this particular conductor. In the “Information” tab, the conductor type, features and geometry is shown. You can type additional notes here, which appear in the conductor description in the rest of the program. This will not affect the data inside the ACA conductor database. In the “Stress Strain” tab, the stress-strain chart is shown as a set of curves. The blue curve represents the initial 1-hour stress-strain behavior, and the red the 10-year creep behavior. There is the option of displaying the total stress (composite), or the individual components (core-strands and outer-stands) separately. By clicking inside the stress-strain chart the stress values for the displayed curves are shown.

Custom Cable Entry Window This is the most flexible way of adding conductors to the current solution. You active the custom cable entry window by clicking on the “Solution/Cables/Add Custom” menu item. The example below shows how to take an existing conductor and modify it to create a custom conductor entry. The second example shows how to create a new custom cable such as an ACA OPGW design.

Example ACSS/TW/HS Bring up the custom cable entry window and click on the “Fill data from conductor database” link on the bottom right. This brings up a standard conductor selection window and with the steps described before select “ACSS/TW TERN Type 7” by filtering all ACSS conductors with the “TERN” codename. Click on the “Add” button in the standard cable selection window. This brings back the custom cable entry window but with all the data filled in with the conductor we selected. Now change the RBS from “14200” to “15200” and the ACA chart from “3-951” to “1-1383” and type in the notes field the following “Custom Design”. To add the custom cable to the current solution, just click on the “Add custom cable” button.

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Example OPGW Select OPGW from the conductor type pull-down list and enter the designation in the notes field. For example type “DNO12345” in the notes field. If the cable has aluminum alloy strands in addition to the aluminum clad strands then enter the total alloy area in the “Total Alloy Area” field such as “49 mm2” or “0.076 in2”. If no aluminum alloy is present then leave that field blank. Now enter the total stress bearing area (for example “0.2411”), the overall diameter (for example “0.669”), the unit weight of the cable (for example “0.4405”) and the cable RBS (for example “18508”). Next select the stress strain tab and pick the corresponding ACA chart from the pull-down list (for example “1-355”). If an ACA chart is not known for this cable design it is not necessary to include it for Vibrec. To add the custom cable to the current solution, just click on the “Add custom cable” button.

Ruling Span Entry Window The ruling span entry window is activated by the “Solution/Spans/Add” menu command. Each span that requires dampers must be grouped into ruling spans for Vibrec to be able to work. Each ruling span is a collection of spans that start from a dead-end and end to a dead-end with only suspension towers in-between. Each ruling span is then completely defined once all the included spans are entered. Alternatively, the ruling span length can be entered manually as well as the number of spans in the ruling span and the maximum span length.

Individual Span Entry To enter spans individually and let Vibrec calculate the ruling span properties just start typing in the “Span Length List” text area. Each number you type separated by a new line, or a comma, or a space, or even as semicolon is added to the list of spans for the ruling span being defined. For example, if you type “500,1000,607” then Vibrec computes the ruling span length as “800”, the number of spans as “3” and the minimum and maximum spans as “500” and “1000” respectively. When all the spans have been entered press “Add Span List” to add this ruling span to the solution and start working on the next ruling span.

Spans defined in MS Excel An alternative to the above method is to use an existing MS Excel spreadsheet with the span lengths already in some cells. Select the cells in Excel and click on the “Edit/Copy” menu item. Then activate Vibrec and right-click over the span list text area and select the “Paste” command.

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Spans defined in a text file Dragging text files from windows into the span list text area will fill in the span list. Vibrec is going to open each file dropped and append the file contents to the span list. Since Vibrec ignores all non numeric data the file dropped may even have span descriptions as well as span lengths. For a example a text file with the following contents will parse correctly.

160 First Span 230 273 130 593 Over the "Boiling Creek" 483 340 Last Span

The result is a ruling span with 7 spans, a ruling span length of 425.2 ft and minimum, maximum span lengths of 130 and 593

Unknown Number of Spans in Ruling Span Sometimes the list of spans within a ruling span is not known. If only the overall properties of a ruling span is known then Vibrec can still function but with limitations as to damper quantities and exact placement of dampers. For example enter a ruling span by entering the ruling span length of “450” and the max span of “600”. That is the minimum information needed to define a ruling span. If the number of spans within the ruling span are also know Vibrec will use this number to simulate the actual sequence of spans by creating a sequence of equal sized spans with the same ruling span length and number of spans.

Build Recommendation Wizard Window This is the window used to add recommendations to the solution. It is activated by the “Solution/Dampers/Apply” menu item or by the damper toolbar button. Use the following steps to define a recommendation.

1. Pick the terrain/wind speed for the solution. This value will affect all the recommendations defined.

2. Pick the conductor for the ones added to the solution. If none has been added to the solution yet click on the “Add From Database” link and add conductors as described in Standard Cable Selection. Additionally enter the bundle configuration (1 to 3) and the phase/circuit multiplier (1 to 6) for this recommendation. These values can be different for different recommendations even for the same conductor.

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3. Pick a guard to attach to the cable from the list provided. The guard type, inner diameter, total length, and rod diameter for standard size guards are shown in the guard list. Custom entry of guards is not yet implemented but might be in future versions of Vibrec.

4. Select the ruling span this recommendation applies to from the list of ruling spans in the solution. If none has been defined yet then click on the “Add new Ruling Span” link and add ruling spans as described in Ruling Span Entry. If a recommendation is already defined for this combination of conductor and ruling span then the ruling span item in the list has a check mark next to it.

5. Enter the initial tension at the AAMT temperature as provided by sag and tension calculations. You can either use ACA’s SAG10 software or competitor software to calculate this value. Future releases of Vibrec might be incorporated into SAG10 in such a way that this step will be automated. If a tension is entered in percent form (example “25%”) it is assumed to be the percent of RBS of the cable and it will converted as such.

6. Enter the final tension at the AAT temperature as provided by sag and tension calculations.

7. Press the “Build Recommendation” button. The recommendation will be setup inside the solution and the damper wizard window gets ready for the next recommendation to be entered.

8. Repeat steps 2 through 7 until all the recommendations that need to be defined are built and inserted into the solution.

9. Press the “Close” button to close the wizard window.

Recommendation Details Window Once a recommendation is defined it can be viewed and tweaked in detail using the recommendation details window. Selecting a recommendation and clicking on the “Solution/Dampers/Edit” menu item activates the recommendation details window. Alternatively, just double-clicking on the recommendation item does the same. The recommendation details window has three tabs, which represent different pieces of information about the recommendation. On the bottom of the window there is a graphic representation of the ruling span with the conductor attached and any dampers and spacers that are needed. If the number of spans is large then the user may need to scroll the image in order to view all the spans. If the user right-clicks on this image, Vibrec presents the options to either save this image to a file, or copy it to the clipboard. When saving to a file the user can pick which format to save the picture in. Note that the dampers are placed not to scale with respect to the span length but are stretched by a fictitious amount. This amount can be adjusted by the scroll control on the bottom of the window.

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An overview of the recommendation can be printed directly to the printer by pressing the “Print” button.

General Information The spacing pictures show where dampers should to be placed (if needed) on the dead-end side, on the suspension side and in the mid span. On the dead-end side dampers need to be placed only if the span requires more than one damper. Otherwise it is preferred that the dampers be placed on the suspension side of spans.

Spacing for AGS units If the suspension has AGS units then the damper should not be placed on top of the AGS unit rods because it severely degrades the performance of the damper and the vibration loop sizes cannot be determined with sufficient accuracy as to guarantee that the damper will not be placed on a vibration node. In this case ACA recommends placing the damper just beyond the AGS unit and then adding a second damper at a distance that guarantees that neither of the dampers will be on a vibration node simultaneously.

Mid Span Damping A similar situation occurs when mid-span damping is needed. The damper cannot be placed in a location that is guaranteed not to be a vibration node and such two dampers are recommended appropriately distanced from each other such that neither will be on a vibration node simultaneously. When mid span damping is needed the damper spacing graphic shows two dampers placed somewhere on the line at a particular distance apart. ACA recommends dividing the total span lengths in equal amounts to accommodate more than one set of mid-span dampers. A river crossing for example, may require not only dampers on both ends, but also two sets of damper groups placed at 1/3 and 2/3 of the span length. Each damper group is two dampers distanced apart by a specific dimension. Each damper group adds to the protected length an amount equal to the level-two protection (see information tab). So if level two protection range goes up to 1000 ft, and the recommendation places three damper groups in mid-span damping, as well as dampers on both ends, then the total protection is 1000+3*1000 = 4000 ft.

Forcing the Display of Damper Spacing If the “Always Show Spacing” checkbox is checked then dampers are shown on the spacing pictures anyway even if they are not needed. This is done such that if a user wants to add dampers to a line where ACA recommends no dampers, Vibrec will report on where to place the dampers even though no dampers will be added to the recommendation.

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Protection Zones Graphic The protection level ranges graphic shows level zero, level one, and level two in aqua, red and purple colors respectively. The x-axis represents span lengths and the vertical lines separate which span lengths need level zero, level one, or level two protection. The protected span length for each level is shown on the bottom row of the graphic. In the middle, with a thick blue line, there is representation of the current ruling span, ranging from minimum span to maximum span. Inside this blue line, there is purple dot that represents the ruling span length and it’s value over it. When the ruling span length falls in the level zero range, no dampers are recommended. When it falls in the level one, one damper per span (in general), and when it falls in the level two, two dampers per span (in general). In addition, it may be that although the ruling span falls on one protection level, some of it’s spans may lie inside the next protection level requiring additional damping for certain spans only.

Selective Damping A special case of this situation occurs when the ruling span falls in the level zero range, and the maximum span in the level one range. In this case we have “selective damping”

Damper List The damper list shows all the dampers that need to be placed in the ruling span. The first column shows to which span dampers are to be placed on. All the rows labeled 1,2,3… etc. under each span represent a different damper on that span. Each damper has an ACA catalog number, whether the damper is placed over a guard or not, and it’s location and placement. It location is the number of inches the damper needs to be placed either on the left side, or on the right side, or the mid-span. Consider the following example list.

Span Damper Catalog OverGuard Location Side 495.0 1 1707-17 YES 37 in Right 2 1707-13 NO 41 in Left 3 1707-13 NO 85 in Left 4 1707-13 NO 22 in Mid 5 1707-13 NO 22 in Mid

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Vibrec recommends the following for this 495 ft span. Damper #1 of ACA catalog “1707-17” spaced at 37 inches on the right side of the span. Looking at the pictures if the right side is a suspension then the damper will be placed 37 inches from the suspension centerline. Dampers #2 and #3 of ACA catalog “1707-13” are spaced at 41 inches and 85 inches from the left side of the span. If the left side is a dead-end side then these dimensions are measured from the tip of the dead-end. This means that the distance between the two dampers should be 85-41=44 inches. Dampers #4 and #5 are on a mid-span location each 22 inches from either side of the placement. The actual placement of this damper group is not shown here, but it is implied by the mid span guidelines described earlier. The distance between the dampers in this case is 22+22=44 inches.

Cable Tensions and Protection

Cable Information This tab shows the cable information on the top. Under the cable designation is the “Phase Circuit Multiplier” which is a number corresponding to the number of phases times the number of circuits in the line of this particular conductor. For example, for a 3 phase, 2 circuit situation the multiplier should be 6.

Tensions The tensions important to vibration are shown below. These include the initial tension at AAMT and the final tension at AAT (see Environment). The tensions can be entered in either pounds or % of RBS. In addition, pressing the “Seek Tension for Level ZERO” button can solve for the maximum initial tension that does not require any dampers. Correspondingly, by pressing the “Seek Tension for Level ONE” button solves for the maximum tension while requiring only one damper per span.

Guarding The guarding type can be selected between Bolted Clamp (NONE), Line Guards (LG), Armor Rods (AR), or Armor Grip Suspension (AGS). Each type affects the damper selection and placement according to the “ACA Spacing Notes”. Press the “Details” button to see the guard geometry and to adjust its length if needed. Often the length of the Armor Rods, or the AGS units may be different from the length that VIBREC picked. The length of the guards affects the placement of the dampers. Dampers should not be placed within 2” of the end of the guards. Typically VIBREC will move the dampers either out of the guard or further inside the guard in order to provide the necessary clearance around the damper. This feature is especially important for OPGW wires were the actual suspension used may vary significantly from the one VIBREC picks by default.

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Protection On the bottom the protection zones are shown with zone “ONE” corresponding to no dampers need, zone “ONE” to one working damper per span, zone “TWO” to two working dampers per span (one on each side of the span), and “MID” when the span requires mid-span damping. The same information is shown in the protection zones text boxes on the top right of the window. The “Minimum Protection Level” setting allows the program to always recommend at least one, two or more dampers for each span according to the particular end user’s specifications for protecting power lines.

Damper Spacing The damper spacing tab shows graphically the installation of the recommended dampers. These figures may not always apply to all the spans as some spans may require more dampers than others. Click on the “Always Show Spacing” checkbox in the “cable & tension” tab to show the spacing for all possible damper configurations. In addition, a list of all the dampers is shown on the right including a span-by-span analysis of where the dampers need to be placed.

Spacer Spacing The span and bundle configuration is shown on the top of the tab. Based on the type of bundle Vibrec recommends SpeedGrip™ Spacers, Spacer Dampers as well as Stockbridge Dampers when applicable. The spacers are shown in the ruling span graphic as purple circles and their spacing is shown in both the Detailed Span View Tab and the table on the right. In addition, the spacing scheme and the threshold wind velocity for wake-induced oscillations can be adjusted here. When a bundled configuration is selected then the application of spacer-dampers (for 3-bundle and 4-bundle only) removes any Stockbridge dampers from the line. Each bundle configuration has a different threshold wind velocity, which is the actual wind the spacers can protect against. Sometimes if the threshold velocity is low enough a more economical spacing scheme may be applied by pressing the “Economical” link. This option tries to minimize the number of spacers needed by trying to space them as wide as possible and with equal spacing.

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Typically the difference in number of spacers is small between “Economical” and “Max. Protection” and only where there are a large number of spans, with a large phase/circuit multiplier, it makes sense to employ such a strategy creating savings from the fewer number of spacers. Note that, the ACA staggered spacing scheme employed by the “Max. Protection” option has been successfully applied to the field for many years with superior protection against wake-induced vibration. Testing has shown that the staggered method provides a higher threshold velocity of almost 10 mph over the standard equal spacing methods. For more information, look into the “Conductor Motion” book published by EPRI. Note that if no spacers are recommended when a bundle configuration is selected one of three things might be happening.

a) The span is too short to require spacers b) The conductor is too small to be bundled c) Spacer recommendations are turned off in the program

options. Go to Tools/Options and in the Line tab make sure the “Recommend Spacers” checkbox is checked.

Detailed Span View Tab This tab shows a span-by-span detail of the entire ruling span, with dampers and spacers attached to it. The “Previous” and “Next” buttons scroll through which span is displayed. The graphic view shows the two towers on the two sides as the vertical blue lines. A thicker line with a support on the bottom indicates a dead-end tower. On the bottom, the span length is shown and on the top the catenary curve of the cable is displayed with an exaggerated sag amount. The sag is exaggerated proportionally for all the spans, and thus longer spans show up with larger sag, and smaller spans with lesser sag. Dead-end hardware is shown as a thick gray line attached to the cable next to a dead-end tower. Suspension hardware is shown as a double red line attached to the cable next to suspension towers.

Damper View Dampers are shown with an icon on the catenary curve in an exaggerated location. A slider on the bottom of the window controls the amount of damper placement exaggeration. This shows the preferred placement and configuration for the dampers recommended. On the bottom of the view the applicable ACA damper catalog numbers are shown.

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Spacer Spacing If spacers are needed then each spacer location is marked with a little purple circle on the catenary and the distance between the spacers is shown underneath the cable. On the bottom of the view the applicable ACA spacer catalog number is shown also.

Notes Notes that pertain to the placement of the dampers or spacers are shown here.

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Multiple Recommendation Editing Some properties can be set for multiple recommendations at the same time. For example a user might choose to check the “Always Show Damper Spacing” checkbox for every recommendation in the solution. To do so, first select all the recommendations in the main solution window. Then click on the “Dampers” button on the toolbar, or select “Solution/Dampers/Edit&View” menu item and the following dialog should appear. To set the “Show Damper Spacing” property for all the selected recommendations click on the “Set” checkbox next to “Damper Spacing”. Then set the “Always Show” option by clicking on the checkbox. Similarly, if any other option needs to be set, click on the set checkbox next to that option and then edit the property to be set accordingly. When finished, click on the “Apply” button on the bottom right to apply these settings to the selected recommendations.

Spacing/Sales Report Sales Report A sales report is the only report available in the shareware version of Vibrec™. It generates a report with only damper quantities and protection levels without any spacing or placement information for the dampers. It is used as a communications tool for users that have not yet placed a damper order with ACA, nor have purchased the Vibrec™ software. It is very similar to the spacing report, an example of which is shown on the next paragraph.

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Spacing Report A spacing report contains all the information generated by Vibrec™ for a solution and it includes a damper quantity summary, the individual recommendations grouped by conductor, the protection levels and the recommended number of dampers, the recommended placement of the dampers (with pictures). In addition, it includes the placement and quantities of any bundled conductor spacers. An example is shown below.

Caocrein

Fine Tuning Details

Environment: Wind=20 mph, AAMT=0°F, AAT=60°F Damper Summary

Damper Catalog Quantity Bolt (in) Torque

(ft*lbs) 1704-05 12 7/16 20 1707-13 0 5/8 40 1707-17 5 5/8 40

ertain information such as the data, opinions or recommendations set forth herein given by Alcoa representatives or by ny software licensed by Alcoa, is intended solely as a general guide and only applies to Alcoa products. Each installation f overhead electrical conductor, underground electrical conductor, and/or conductor accessories involves special onditions creating problems that require individual solutions. Therefore, the recipient of this information has the sole sponsibility in connection with the use of the information. Alcoa does not assume any liability in connection with such formation.

Recommendations for : ACSS/EHS 54/9 Str 476 Kcmil Span Information Tensions Guard Total Dmpr Qty Protection Ranges (ft) Item

Ruling (ft) Max. (ft) # of Spans Initial Final Type 1704-05 N/A Level 0 Level 1 Level 2 718.4 958 5 13022 9383 NONE 12 0 0-40 40-513 513-1025

1

Recommendations for : ACSR PHEASANT 54/19 Str 1272.0 Kcmil

Span Information Tensions Guard Total Dmpr Qty Protection Ranges (ft) Item Ruling (ft) Max. (ft) # of Spans Initial Final Type 1707-13 1707-17 Level 0 Level 1 Level 2

718.4 958 5 14333 11222 AR 0 5 0-533 533-1178 1178-2355

1

[email protected], 2003-Jul-03

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First shown on the report is the title of the solution as well as the environment defined. In the middle of the page the damper summary is shown as well as the required bolt diameters and torques to install all the dampers. Each recommendation set as grouped by conductor contains a number of items and a set of notes. In the example above there are no notes shown. Each recommendation item contains the following information. First is the ruling span information, showing the ruling span length, the max span length and the number of spans within the ruling span. Next is the tension information that corresponds to the values entered by the user for the initial and final tension. Next is the guarding if any as designation by a keyword such as “LG” for line guards, “AR” for armor rods or “AGS” for armor grip suspensions. Next are the damper quantities for two types of dampers. First is the damper that fits over bare conductor and second the damper that fits over the guard if one is selected. The quantities shown are totals for all the spans within the ruling span and so if 5 dampers are needed in a ruling span with 5 spans, this means there is going to be 1 damper per span. Next are the protection ranges for the current configuration. Level 0 corresponds to the span length range that does not require any damping. Level 1 corresponds to the span length range that in general requires one damper per span. Finally, Level 2 correspond to the span length range that in general requires two dampers per span. Beyond level 2 the program recommends mid span damping. Sometimes if the actual spans within a ruling span are not defined than the exact number of dampers cannot be calculated and then the program will show something like “1+/span” in the quantities. This notation denotes that in general one damper is needed per span, but some spans may require additional dampers due to their length or location within the ruling span. Please see the ACA Spacing Notes mentioned earlier for details on damper quantities when the program does not have all the necessary information needed to place dampers. Finally, the damper placement figures are shown which indicate how and where to place the ACA dampers. All distances are measured in inches.

Guy Wire Damper Solution Details Some of the features and capabilities of Vibrec was described earlier in the section named “Guy Wire Damper Solution Example”. In this section, all the features and capabilities of the Guy Wire Damper Solution part of Vibrec™ are described in detail.

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Main Solution Window Tower Menu The user can add new tower levels to the solution, or edit and delete existing levels from this menu.

Reports Menu The user can generate either a sales or a spacing report from this menu. See Spacing/Sales Report for more details.

Header Information and Signatures The title for the solution is shown on the top portion of the solution window. The title is used as the default filename for file saving the solution and generating reports.

Damper Summary The area on the left is the damper summary. If the damper summary is not visible then you are either adding or editing a tower level. To show the damper summary, press the “Close” button. In the damper summary Vibrec™ adds up all the dampers used for each level defined and then groups the quantities by the ACA catalog number.

Tower Levels Each tower level defined is shown as a list on the right side of the solution window. The first column is the tower level, which is a number starting from one, and incremented by one with each new level added. Currently Vibrec cannot skip, or set a new level name. The next column is the number of wires in this tower level (typically 3). Next is the guy wire diameter in fractional inches. Next is the total guy wire length. Next is the guy wire tension for that level in pounds. Next is the ACA damper catalog number for the guy wire. Next is the number of dampers recommended for each wire in the level. Next is any additional dampers requested per wire. Finally, the spacing in terms of the variables “B”,”A” and “T” is shown. The “T” spacing corresponds to the placement distance from the top of the tower. This is the preferred location for ACA dampers. If the damper cannot be installed on the top, then it should be installed on the bottom using the “B” spacing. If a damper group cannot be placed at either the correct “T” or “B” then they need to be placed as close as possible to the optimal location and a second group of dampers added a distance “A” away from the first set. In this case the number of dampers for this tower level is doubled and the user can account for that when entering a tower level. Look at the notes in the example shown in Spacing/Sales Report for more details on the placements of dampers.

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Tower Level Definition and Editing

To add a new tower level, click on the “Tower/Add” menu item. Alternatively, the damper button in the toolbar has the same effect. This makes the add/edit level panel visible on top of the damper summary. This panel can be seen on the left. To add a new level select the number of wires, and the wire size, enter the wire length and tension and press the “Add” button. The user has the option to include additional dampers beyond what Vibrec™ recommends by entering the number of additional dampers in the appropriate box. To automatically select double the recommended quantities for the reasons explained in the previous section check the “Double up Dampers” checkbox.

To edit an existing tower level, just double click on its entry in the solution window, or select it and click on “Tower/Edit” menu item. This brings up the same panel as for adding levels, but this time all the values are already filled in. Change what needs to be edited and press on the “Accept” button to implement the changes. An alternative to entering the wire length is to enter it as the sides of a right triangle using two values separated by a comma.

Spacing/Sales Report If the file, tower, and reports menus are disabled then the level entry panel is visible and needs to close before you can proceed. The sales and spacing reports are very similar except that the sales report omits all the spacing information. The sales report is the only report available in the shareware version of Vibrec™. Part of a report was shown in Guy Wire Damper Solution - Example and it contains the same information as the guy wire damper solution window.

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Vibrec™ Versions & Features Compatibility exists between the shareware and the commercial releases, such that the files created by a shareware version can be read by the commercial and vise versa. This is done such that a shareware user can setup and Vibrec™ solution and then email the solution file to ACA together with a damper order to get a recommendation on the placement without having to recreate the information and leaving the decisions to the line designers instead of the ACA employees.

Beta Releases 1.0.1000.1 through 1.0.1000.12 The beta release of Vibrec includes solutions for phase dampers and guy wire dampers. Supported cable types are ACSR, AAC, AAAC, ACSS, STEEL and AW.

Commercial/Shareware Release - 1.0.1001 The initial release of Vibrec adds spacers and spacer-dampers for the line damper recommendations. Additional support for OPGW cable and custom cable entry is included.

Commercial/Shareware - Update Release - 1.0.2000 An accumulation of many bug fixes and feature requests from customers from the first months of commercial availability of Vibrec. Also the interface issues fixed when using Large Fonts in windows. Custom guard length option added, as well is options for minimum protection level on each ruling span.

Commercial/Shareware - Update Release - 1.0.2200 Added the “Damper Application Wizard” to the main window tools.

Commercial/Shareware - Update Release - 1.0.2300 Reconfigured the “Edit/View Recommendation“ dialog. Separated the recommendation details in more tabs and allowed better viewing for smaller resolutions. In addition, a list of spacer spacings was added.

Commercial/Shareware - Update Release - 1.0.2400 Added Spacer Spacing based on Catenary Length. Added Feature, Export to Excel (.csv files) for Damper & Spacer Spacing. Added Support for T-2 Cable Construction.

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Index AAMT, 12 AAT, 12 AGS, 12, 18, 20, 26 ACA Spacing Notes, 11, 12, 13, 26 bundle configuration, 21 Cables, 10 damper application wizard, 9 Damper Spacing, 21 Damper Summary, 6, 7, 12, 27 Dampers, 10 Detail View, 14 Detailed Span View, 5, 21, 22 Features, 8, 29 File menu, 8 Guarding, 20 Guy Wire Damper, 7, 26, 28 Help menu, 9 Information Tab, 18 Mid Span, 18 Minimum Protection Level, 21 Multiple Recommendation, 24 OPGW, 14, 15, 20, 29

Properties, 10 protection zones, 21 Recommendation Details, 10, 17 Recommendation Wizard, 10, 12,

16 Reports Menu, 27 Ruling Span, 5, 10, 15, 16, 17 Sales Report, 11, 24, 27, 28 Selective Damping, 13, 19 Solution menu, 10 Spacer Spacing, 21, 23 Spacing Report, 6, 7, 11, 25 Spans, 10 Spans defined in a text file, 16 Spans defined in MS Excel, 15 Status Bar, 8 Toolbar, 9 Tools menu, 8 Tower Levels, 7, 27 Tower Menu, 27 Versions, 29 Window menu, 9

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Documents

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registrationbefore vibrec

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vibrec versions features