Towers play very important roles in today’s infrastructure, especially in energy transmission, communication and lighting. Since interruptions in the services of medium, high and very high voltage power transmission line towers will have very costly consequences, it is of great importance to verify with full scale tests that they designed and produced correctly.
All over the world, grid companies and owners demand this service directly from designers and suppliers in such projects. This request may be for a newly designed or improved tower, or it may be for samples of a large number of towers to be built along a line.
Thanks to the tests, besides the verification of the design of the tower, many parameters such as manufacturing errors, assembly difficulties and points for improvement can be observed.
Details about the test procedures of the towers are defined in standards such as ASCE 10-97, ASCE Manual 52, IEC 60652, IS802 Part III. Towers are generally subjected to two types of tests. In the first type, the Design Test, the towers are gradually subjected to the highest loads they will be exposed to during their service life or if required some additional loads until destruction is observed. In the second type, the Sample Test, the towers randomly selected from a production batch will be exposed to design loads in order to prove the quality and strength required for that project.
In ENA Tower Testing Station Inc., which has established and implemented the quality system according to ISO IEC 17025, tower tests are carried out in accordance with EN IEC 60652 standard.