Experimental Study of the Effect of Aeolian Vibrations on the Contact Resistance of Substation Connectors

In the past, there have been some practical experiments to study the effect of high current and high temperature on the contact resistance of the substation connectors. However, there is a scarcity of practical works to study the effect of Aeolian vibrations. This paper presents an experimental study to analyze the effect of wind-induced vibrations on the contact resistance of the substation connector for tubular aluminum bus bars. Substation connectors are usually subjected to high current and high temperature stresses, thus being difficult to analyze the effect on vibrations when combined with these stresses. This paper presents a comparative study when the substation connectors operate with and without the effects of Aeolian vibration. Experimental results presented in this work show that the effect of vibrations on the contact resistance of the substation connectors is greatly influenced by the position of the connector and the type of mechanical support on the bus bar.