Atmospheric icing and communication tower failure in the United States

Mulherin, Nathan D.

doi:10.1016/s0165-232x(97)00025-6

Cited by 31 publications

(20 citation statements)

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“…In the literature several examples are found of such damages to overhead power lines (e.g., Thorkildson et al 2009;Qiang et al 2005), reduced efficiency and fatigue damages on wind turbines (Frohboese and Anders 2007;Jasinski et al 1998), and collapse of telecommunication towers (Mulherin 1998). It is usually most pronounced in exposed mountainous terrain where the cloud base is frequently located lower than the terrain height such that the mountain peaks are in cloud.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prediction of In-Cloud Icing Conditions at Ground Level Using the WRF Model

Nygaard

Kristjánsson

Makkonen

2011

Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology

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In-cloud icing on aircraft and ground structures can be observed every winter in many countries. In extreme cases ice can cause accidents and damage to infrastructure such as power transmission lines, telecommunication towers, wind turbines, ski lifts, and so on. This study investigates the potential for predicting episodes of in-cloud icing at ground level using a state-of-the-art numerical weather prediction model. The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model is applied, with attention paid to the model's skill to explicitly predict the amount of supercooled cloud liquid water content (SLWC) at the ground level at different horizontal resolutions and with different cloud microphysics schemes. The paper also discusses how well the median volume droplet diameter (MVD) can be diagnosed from the model output. A unique dataset of direct measurements of SLWC and MVD at ground level on a hilltop in northern Finland is used for validation. A mean absolute error of predicted SLWC as low as 0.08 g m 23 is obtained when the highest model resolution is applied (grid spacing equal to 0.333 km), together with the Thompson microphysics scheme. The quality of the SLWC predictions decreases dramatically with decreasing model resolution, and a systematic difference in predictive skill is found between the cloud microphysics schemes applied. A comparison between measured and predicted MVD shows that when prescribing the droplet concentration equal to 250 cm 23 the model predicts MVDs ranging from 12 to 20 mm, which corresponds well to the measured range. However, the variation from case to case is not captured by the current cloud microphysics schemes.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prediction of In-Cloud Icing Conditions at Ground Level Using the WRF Model

Nygaard

Kristjánsson

Makkonen

2011

Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology

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“…Ice storms cause the collapse of communication towers (Mulherin 1998) and high-voltage transmission lines. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) is the primary source for minimum design loads for buildings and other structures (ASCE 2002).…”

Section: A Surface-icing Applicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantitative Ice Accretion Information from the Automated Surface Observing System

Ryerson

Ramsay²

2007

Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology

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Freezing precipitation is a persistent winter weather problem that costs the United States millions of dollars annually. Costs and infrastructure disruption may be greatly reduced by ice-storm warnings issued by the National Weather Service (NWS), and by the development of climatologies that allow improved design of infrastructure elements. However, neither the NWS nor developers of climatologies have had direct measurements of ice-storm accumulations as a basis for issuing warnings and developing storm design standards. This paper describes the development of an aviation routine/special weather report (METAR/ SPECI) remark that will report quantitative ice thickness at over 650 locations during ice storms using new algorithms developed for the Automated Surface Observing System (ASOS). Characteristics of the ASOS icing sensor, a field program to develop the algorithms, tests of accuracy, application of the algorithms, and sources of error are described, as is the implementation of an ice-thickness METAR/SPECI remark. The algorithms will potentially allow freezing precipitation events to be tracked with regard to ice accumulation in near-real time as they progress across the United States.

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“…Approximately 140 tower-collapses as a result of ice accumulation have been reported and confirmed since 1959 in the United States alone (Mulherin, 1996).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Modelling and simulation of the ice accretion process on fixed or rotating cylindrical objects by the boundary element method =

Fu¹

2004

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Atmospheric icing and communication tower failure in the United States

Cited by 31 publications

References 0 publications

Prediction of In-Cloud Icing Conditions at Ground Level Using the WRF Model

Prediction of In-Cloud Icing Conditions at Ground Level Using the WRF Model

Quantitative Ice Accretion Information from the Automated Surface Observing System

Modelling and simulation of the ice accretion process on fixed or rotating cylindrical objects by the boundary element method =

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