E3S Web of Conferences 522, 01024 (2024) https://doi.org/10.

1051/e3sconf/202452201024
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Seismic performance analysis of double

electrical equipment system connected by
flexible conductors
Xin Wang2, Zhihu Hong1,*, Qingyun Min1, Dexu Zou1, Xijing Zhao3 and Qiang Xie4
1Electric Power Research Institute of Yunnan Power Grid Corporation, Yunnan Kunming, China
2
Yunnan Power Grid Corporation, Yunnan Kunming, China
3
Pu’er Power Supply Branch of Yunnan Power Grid Co., Ltd., Yunnan Puer, China
4
College of Civil Engineering Tongji University, Shanghai, China

Keywords: Double electrical equipment system, Seismic response,

Flexible conductor, Coupling effects, Seismic performance.

Abstract. Structural characteristics of electrical equipment are influenced

by connected flexible conductors. In order to study the seismic
performance of the double electrical equipment system (DEES) with
flexible conductors, a simplified modeling method of the DEES with
flexible conductors was proposed in this paper. The refined finite element
model of the DEES with flexible conductors was established using ANSYS
software. Its seismic response level was analyzed and compared with that
of the standalone equipment. Besides, the impact of ground motion input
was also investigated. The results show that the first two modal frequencies
of the DEES will be reduced by the flexible conductor. The flexible
conductor can reduce the seismic responses of the low-frequency
equipment in the DEES, while it increases seismic responses of the high-
frequency equipment. When the slack of the flexible busbar is greater than
a critical value, the additional pulling force on the top of the equipment
caused by the busbar can be kept at a low level, which is also related to the
ground motion input.

1 Introduction
Substation equipment exhibits high vulnerability under earthquakes [1]. Most of the
porcelain pillar electrical equipment in substation are connected by the flexible conductors,
which will significantly affect the dynamic characteristics of the electrical equipment [2-4].
For substation equipment coupling system connected by flexible conductors under
earthquake action, due to the different structural characteristics of the equipment on both
sides of the flexible conductor connection, if the vertical span ratio of the flexible conductor
cannot meet the requirements of seismic performance, the equipment on both sides will
have strong interaction due to the existence of the flexible conductors, and the tension in

* Corresponding author: [email protected]

© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution License 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
E3S Web of Conferences 522, 01024 (2024) https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202452201024
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the flexible conductors may lead to the damage of the equipment [5, 6]. The field
investigation after the earthquake shows that the interaction between substation equipment
is one of the important reasons for the damage of some electrical equipment [7-8].
Although the cost of repairing substations after the earthquake is only a small part of the
reconstruction cost, the indirect loss caused by the failure of the power system is difficult to
estimate the impact of earthquake relief.
Since the mid-1990s, scholars at home and abroad have studied the mechanical
properties of flexible conductors and the interaction of coupled devices by means of
experimental research, theoretical analysis and finite element analysis [9-11]. In the seismic
research of substation equipment, many researchers have carried out the experimental
research on the seismic performance of the equipment [12, 13]. Because of the large
volume and high height of the equipment, the seismic simulation shaking table experiment
of the flexible conductor connected equipment is rarely carried out [14]. Xie et al.
conducted a seismic simulation shaking table test of the connection system between the
actual equipment and the soft bus, and gave the mathematical expression of the seismic
response of the coupled system [15-16].
The modeling analysis of coupled equipment is also an important method to investigate
the seismic performance of flexible conductors connected equipment. Kiureghian et al.
analyzed the seismic performance of the equipment coupled with seismic forces by
establishing a theoretical model [17]. In 2012, Kara Mohammadi et al. analyzed several
common forms of soft bus connecting substation equipment and the influence of different
parameters on the interaction forces between equipment [18]. Li et al. used the rod element
large deformation finite element method to discuss the influence of wires on the seismic
performance of electric porcelain type electrical equipment and the interaction between
electrical equipment connected by wires. They believed that wires would increase the strain
response of equipment, and the degree of influence depended on the span of wires [19].
At present, the consideration of coupling in the seismic design of substation equipment
is mainly reflected in the following two aspects: On the one hand, the sag ratio of the
flexible conductor is controlled to ensure sufficient relaxation, so as to ensure that the bus
will not produce too much tension under the earthquake; On the other hand, in the seismic
design, the force generated in the flexible conductor acts on the top of the equipment in the
form of additional force (flexible conductor connection). In this paper, the finite element
model of the double electrical equipment system (DEES) is established by using the
simulation software and the simplified form of the flexible conductor and the equipment.
The response level of the DEES under different ground motion input is analyzed, and the
seismic response is compared with that of the standalone equipment, so as to evaluate the
influence of the flexible conductor on the seismic performance of the DEES.

2. Finite element model and modal analysis

2.1. Flexible conductor parameter

In this section, the finite element model of the DEES with soft bus connections is
established by using the general finite element software ANSYS. The foundation of the
structural system is assumed to be rigid, and the peak ground motion acceleration of El
Centro wave, Landers wave and Artificial wave is input. The shape of the conductor is
catenary with the relaxation of 2% (corresponding to the sag ratio of 1.75%).
In which, Dr is the conductor relaxation, L0 is the initial length of conductor, L1 is the
chord length of conductor.

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Because the relaxation can represent the redundancy of the conductor more directly than
the vertical span ratio when the conductor length is selected in practice, the relaxation is
chosen as the standard to measure the redundancy of the conductor.
According to the previous studies on the mechanical properties of the flexible conductor,
it is appropriate to regard the flexible conductor as a suspension cable that can only be
strained. Therefore, when the finite element analysis is performed, the flexible conductor
element is defined as the Link10 element that is only pulled. The unit treats the cable as a
two-node linear bar element without considering the influence of the cable's dead weight
sag. The basic parameters of the flexible conductor are shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Basic parameters of flexible conductor model.
Conductor type 2300MCM
Materials Aluminum
Conductor diameter/mm 44
Strand diameter/mm 4.9
Number of strands 61
Unit weight/kN/m 0.19
Cross area/m2 0.0015

2.2. Substation equipment parameter

The parameters of substation equipment are shown in Table 2. The height of the equipment
is 4.3 m, and the span between the equipment is 4 m. The model uses a steel pipe to
simulate the stiffness of the equipment and an additional lumped mass at the top to simulate
the total mass of the equipment.
Table 2. Basic parameters of equal generation model.
Equipment number 1 2

Steel pipe size/mm 178*127*5 203*152*5

Top weight/kN 3.8 0.62

Total weight/kN 4.71 1.69

Natural vibration frequency/Hz 1.551 4.958

The Beam188 element in ANSYS software is used to simulate the steel pipe pillar,
which is a three-dimensional secondary beam element with 6 or 7 degrees of freedom per
node, and can simulate the linear, large Angle and linear large strain conditions well. The
Mass21 element is used to simulate the lumped mass block, which is a point element with 6
degrees of freedom, that is, only one node. Through different Settings, only the translational
degrees of freedom and their combination in two or three dimensions can be considered,
and each direction can have different mass and moment of inertia.

2.3. Modal analysis of flexible conductor

Take the type of 4000-MCM conductor as an example with the weight of 57 N/m, the
cross-sectional area of 2027mm2 and the material elastic modulus of 70GPa. The span of
the conductor is 5m, the height difference between the two ends is 0, the midspan sag is
0.25m, and the vertical span ratio is 5%. In ANSYS, Link10 element is used to establish the
finite element model of the flexible conductor. The first 10 vibration modes in the finite
element model are shown in Fig. 1, and the natural vibration frequency is shown in Table 3.

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Table 3. Natural frequency of flexible conductor.

Vibration type First Second stage Third Fourth Fifth
stage stage stage stage
Out-of-plane vibration/Hz 1.11 2.21 3.32 4.43 5.53
Antisymmetric vibration in 2.19 4.41 6.64 8.86 11.09
plane/Hz
Symmetric vibration in 3.16 5.44 7.69 9.93 12.18
plane/Hz

(a) First mode (b) Second mode (a) First mode (b) Second mode
Fig. 1. The first 2 modes of the DEES. Fig. 2. The first 2 vibration modes of the flexible conductor.

2.4. Modal analysis of DEES

The purpose of modal analysis is to obtain the structural vibration characteristics such as
frequency and mode, which is the basis of the subsequent dynamic time history analysis.
The basic parameters of the conductor and the coupled equipment are shown in Table Ⅰ
and Ⅱ respectively, and the relaxation of the conductor is 2%. Table Ⅳ shows the first 20
frequencies of the DEES, and Fig. 2 shows the first 2 modes.
Table 4. The first 10 frequencies of the DEES.
Rank Frequency/Hz Rank Frequency/Hz
1 0.918 11 4.352
2 1.500 12 4.587
3 1.518 13 4.671
4 1.781 14 5.479
5 1.835 15 5.498
6 2.620 16 6.379
7 2.744 17 6.415
8 3.635 18 7.321
9 3.653 19 7.335
10 4.160 20 8.225
The external and internal vibration modes of each level of the flexible conductor of the
coupled equipment appear alternately, and the internal vibration modes of the first level of
the equipment 1 appear in the second level, and the corresponding frequency is 1.5Hz. The
first-order in-plane mode of equipment 2 appears at the eleventh order mode of the coupled
equipment, corresponding to a frequency of 4.352Hz. The first-order natural vibration
frequency of single equipment 1 is 1.551Hz, and that of single equipment 2 is 4.958Hz. The
presence of the flexible conductor reduces the frequency of the first-order modes of the
equipment 1 and equipment 2. Considering the inertia of the flexible conductor, the mass of
the flexible conductor is divided equally and added to the top of the two ends of the
equipment respectively. The modal frequency of the DEES is less than the natural
frequency of the single equipment.

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3 Seismic response and influence analysis

3.1. Seismic response analysis

The El Centro wave, Landers wave and artificial wave with peak acceleration of 0.25g were
input to calculate the time history of the DEES model. When the input is El Centro wave
and the conductor relaxation is 2%, Fig. 3 is the time history of the bending moment at the
root of the equipment, and Fig. 4 is the time history of the tension in the flexible conductor.

(a) equipment 1 (b) equipment 2

Fig. 3. The root bending moment time history of the equipment.

Fig.4. Tension time history of the flexible conductor.

It can be seen from Fig. 3 to 4 that the time history of displacement at the top of the two
equipment oscillates in opposite directions, showing nonlinear characteristics. The
maximum and minimum bending moments at the root of equipment 1 are 11.7kN*m and -
9.84kN*m, and the maximum and minimum bending moments at the root of equipment 2
are 12.23kN*m and -12.85kN*m. The maximum value and minimum value of tensile force
in the flexible conductor under earthquake action are 6138N and 2N.
In order to study the influence of the presence of the flexible conductor on the bending
moment response of the root of the equipment, the time-history response of the single
bending moment of the equipment under the action of 0.25g El Centro wave was calculated.
Fig. 5 shows the time-history of the bending moment response of the single equipment.

(a) equipment 1 (b) equipment 2

Fig. 5. The root bending moment time history of the single equipment.

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(a) Acceleration time history of El Centro wave (b) Response spectrum of El Centro wave

(c) Acceleration time history of Landers wave

(d) Response spectrum of Landers wave (e) Acceleration time history of Artificial wave

(f) Response spectrum of artificial wave

Fig.6. Acceleration time history curve and response spectrum of three groups of ground motion.
The maximum bending moment at the root of equipment 2 is 5.56kN*m, and the
minimum bending moment at the root of equipment 2 is -6.53kN*m. Subtraction from the

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maximum bending moment at the root of equipment 2 in the DEES is 6670N, divided by
the height of the equipment (4.3m), it can be seen that the influence of the presence of the
flexible conductor on the bending moment at the root of equipment 2 is equivalent to
adding 1151N pulling force at the top of the equipment. The minimum bending moment of
the root of the equipment 1 is -14.9kN*m, and the absolute value is larger than that of the
coupled equipment. In this working condition, the existence of the flexible conductor has
no adverse effect on the seismic performance of the equipment 1.

3.2. Influence of ground motion input on seismic performance of the DEES

In order to investigate the effect of different ground motion input on the seismic
performance of the DEES, the El Centro wave, Landers wave and artificial wave with input
peak acceleration of 0.25g were calculated and analyzed. The acceleration time history of
the three kinds of ground motion input is shown in Fig. 6. The acceleration response spectra
of the three kinds of ground motion all meet the requirements of IEEE1527 specification.
Taking the relaxation of 2% as an example, the effects of different ground motion inputs
on the axial force in the conductor (represented by F1 in the paper) and the horizontal
additional force (represented by F2 in the paper) in the conductor of high-frequency
equipment are shown in Fig. 7. Under three kinds of ground motion input, the response of
low-frequency equipment under coupled condition is smaller than that under single
condition, and the influence of conductor on high-frequency equipment under different
ground motion input is quite different. The force in the conductor with Landers wave input
is greater than the axial force in the bus with El Centro wave and Artificial wave input.

Fig.7. Influence of ground motion input on axial force in bus bar with 2% relaxation.
The axial force time history of the busbar under different ground motion input at 2%
relaxation is shown in Fig. 8. The moment when the maximum axial force of the conductor
occurs generally corresponds to the moment when the ground motion input is larger.
Therefore, the time when the maximum axial force in the conductor appears and the peak
value of the converted horizontal additional force in the conductor of the high-frequency
equipment do not necessarily occur at the same time.
In addition, as shown in Fig. 9 and 10, by comparing the peak values of conductor shaft
force and additional tension at the top of high-frequency equipment under the same peak
value and different ground motion input, it can be concluded that when the relaxation of the
flexible conductor is greater than a certain critical value, the additional tension value of the
top of the equipment caused by the flexible conductor can be maintained at a lower level.
However, the critical value of the relaxation is related to the ground motion input, and the
corresponding critical value of the relaxation may be different for different ground motion
input.

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(a) Conductor axis force history of El Centro wave (b) Conductor axis force history of Landers wave.

(c) Conductor axis force history of artificial wave.

Fig. 8. Time history of conductor axis force under different ground motion input with 2% relaxation.

Fig. 9. Variation of conductor axial force with relaxation under 0.25g different ground motion input.

Fig. 10. Variation of additional tension on top of high frequency equipment with relaxation under
0.25g different ground motion input.
Under the input of 0.25g artificial wave and 0.5g artificial wave, the axial force in the
bus bar and the additional tension at the top of the high-frequency equipment are shown in
Table Ⅴ. When the acceleration amplitude of the ground motion input increases to 2 times,
the axial force in the conductor and the additional tension at the top of the high-frequency
equipment increase by about 2.7 times, which is greater than the growth rate of the ground

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motion. Therefore, when determining the action of conductor additional tension, it is

necessary to calculate the action of conductor additional tension corresponding to different
seismic levels. Or calculate the additional force to be considered for lower seismic levels,
and then multiply it by an amplification factor.
Table 5. Equipment response under different peak ground motion inputs.
Artificial wave PGA Axial force in the conductor Additional tension at the top of
(F1)/N high-frequency equipment (F2)/N
0.25g 1649 316
0.5g 4407 853
Amplification factor 2.67 2.7

4 Conclusion
Through seismic performance analysis of double electrical equipment system (DEES)
connected by flexible conductors, the conclusions are as follows:
(1) The natural frequencies of the first two modes of the DEES were reduced due to the
presence of the flexible conductor.
(2) The flexible conductor can reduce the seismic responses of the low-frequency
equipment in the DEES, while it increases seismic responses of the high-frequency
equipment.
(3) The additional pulling force on the top of the equipment caused by the busbar can be
kept at a low level, if the slack of the flexible busbar is greater than a critical value. The
critical value of the slack is related to the ground motion input.

This is supported by Science and Technology Project of China Southern Power Grid Corporation
(Research on Seismic Detection and Evaluation of Electrical Equipment and Emergency Support
Technology for Earthquake Prevention and Disaster Relief, No.YNKJXM20220019).

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