Composite Structures 92 (2010) 275–283

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Composite Structures
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compstruct

Transient dynamic analysis of tapered FRP composite transmission

poles using finite element method
S.M.R. Khalili a,b,*, B. Saboori a
a
Centre of Excellence for Research in Advanced Materials and Structures, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, K.N. Toosi University of Technology,
Pardis St., Molasadra Ave., Vanak Sq., Tehran, Iran
b
Faculty of Engineering, Kingston University, London, UK

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Power transmission poles are subjected to dynamic cantilever bending due to wind gusts and cable uni-
Available online 28 July 2009 lateral failure, or may also be subjected to vehicle impacts. In this paper, transient dynamic analysis of
tapered fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composite transmission poles with circular thin-walled cross-sec-
Keywords: tion subjected to dynamic cable tension and vehicle impacts is investigated by combination of tapered
Transmission pole beam finite element and precise time integration method. It is assumed that the material behavior is lin-
Fiber-reinforced polymer composite early elastic and the laminate of the cross-section of the wall is symmetric or antisymmetric angle-ply.
Tapered shape
The effect of fiber type and orientation, the pole geometry, and the concentrated mass at the pole tip
Transient dynamic analysis
Finite element method
are evaluated by performing the dynamic analysis of FRP poles under step, triangular and sine pulses.
There is a good agreement between the results of the present method and those obtained from the poles
modeled by ANSYS commercial finite element software and existed literatures. Also, there is a significant
shorter run-time in the present method. It is concluded that beyond 10 layers for the laminate with con-
stant thickness of the wall, the pole tip deflection does not change.
Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction composite materials, but only a few performed on tapered sections.

Fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites are becoming
increasingly popular in the engineering applications as alternative
to conventional engineering materials. The unique characteristics
of FRP, such as their light weight, their resistance to corrosion, high
energy absorption, and the lower cost of transportation, erection
and maintenance, are very promising in the application of FRP in
various engineering fields. One such application is replacement of
power transmission poles, traditionally made of wood, concrete,
or steel, by FRP poles [1]. Having high values of structural damping,
is a remarkable characteristic of the FRP poles that can prevent
large amplitude vibration sometimes leading to collapse [2] and
their high energy absorption due to high damping values which
can greatly reduce injuries in vehicle impacts.
Transmission poles, are mainly subjected to dynamic cantilever
bending due to wind gusts and cable unilateral failure, or may also
be subjected to vehicle impacts and mostly are tapered and thin-
walled members. Many studies have been performed on the dy-
namic behavior of thin-walled sections made of steel as well as
* Corresponding author. Address: Centre of Excellence for Research in Advanced
Materials and Structures, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, K.N. Toosi University
of Technology, Pardis St., Molasadra Ave., Vanak Sq., Tehran, Iran. Tel.: +98
2184063208; fax: +98 2188664748.
E-mail address: smrkhalili2005@gmail.com (S.M.R. Khalili).
In fact, the previous studies are concerned with the dynamic
behavior of tapered members made from homogeneous and isotro-
pic materials [3].
Navaratna et al. [4] are among the early researchers to use the
finite element method to analyze the stability of the shells of rev-
olution. The approach used by Navaratna to develop the geometric
stiffness matrix is followed by Gould and Basu [5] for the linear
buckling and the incremental deformation analysis of rotational
shells. Mabie and Rogers [6,7] presented a closed-form solution
to the free vibration of an isotropic double-tapered cantilever
beam with rectangular cross-section and end mass. The beam
was tapered linearly in the horizontal and vertical planes simulta-
neously, with the taper ratio in the horizontal plane equal to that in
the vertical plane. Noor et al. [8] assessed a group of computational
methods for multilayered composite cylinders. The finite element
models they surveyed are mostly two or three dimensional ele-
ments. Caracoglia and Jones [2] performed a numerical and exper-
imental study of vibration mitigation for highway tapered
aluminum poles. The study was performed in order to identify
the potential causes associated with the failures. It was concluded
that, although the poles were designed according to standard spec-
ifications, an unusual event, in which the combination of wind
and frozen precipitation was observed, could be responsible for
large vibration amplitudes (aeroelastically related or enhanced).
Polyzois et al. [3] investigated the free vibration of tapered GFRP

0263-8223/$ - see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.compstruct.2009.07.026
276 S.M.R. Khalili, B. Saboori / Composite Structures 92 (2010) 275–283

Nomenclature

{N}, {M} force and moment resultant vectors of a laminate W strain energy
{e}, {j} strain of the mid plane and the curvature vectors of a [Kf] element stiffness matrix
laminate T kinetic energy
Aij, Bij, Dij extensional, coupling, and bending stiffness coeffi- [Mf] element mass matrix
cients d nodal displacement vector
h laminate thickness Q nodal force vector

Q transformed stiffness matrix components of a laminate [M], [C], [K] total mass, damping and stiffness matrices of a sys-
ij
Eeff, E effective longitudinal elasticity modulus tem
R1, R2 the radii at the small and the large ends of tapered ele- t time
ment (tk, tk+1) a very small time step
L, A, I length, cross-sectional area and moment of inertia of ta- s the length of time step (tk, tk+1)
pered element T1 fundamental period
R local radius of tapered element f(t) impulse function
X, y Cartesian coordinate system f0 impulse function coefficient
F the shift with respect to the coordinate origin Vf fiber volume fraction
A0, I0 cross-sectional area and moment of inertia coefficients h fiber angle with respect to the pole axis (in degree)
H mass density of composite material d1, d2 the tip and the base diameter of the pole
V(x) deflection function of tapered element M concentrated mass at the pole tip
F subscript indicating flexure Mp pole mass
cf,i coefficients related to the pole deflection function NL number of layers of the pole cross-section
(i = 1, 2, 3, 4) EL longitudinal modulus of a lamina
{v} nodal displacement vector ET transverse modulus of a lamina
vi nodal lateral displacements GLT shear modulus of a lamina
hi nodal rotations mLT major Poisson’s ratio of a lamina

poles using the tapered beam element. Finite element method is where {N} and {M} are the force and couple moment resultants,
used by Ibrahim and Polyzois [9] to analyze the cross-section oval- respectively. {e} and {j} are the strains of the mid plane and the
ization behavior of FRP poles under a bending load. In the work of laminated plate curvatures. The stiffness coefficients Aij, Bij, and
Caracoglia [10], two problems are analyzed: the susceptibility to Dij correspond to extensional, coupling, and bending stiffness coef-
across-wind galloping-type vibration associated with the deposit ficients and are defined as follows:
of frozen-precipitation on the surface of the poles or the luminaire, Z h=2
installed at the top of the unit; and the influence of eccentric aero- Aij ¼ Q ij dz ð2Þ
dynamic loading at the level of the luminaire on the dry-unit buf- h=2
feting response. Caracoglia and Velazquez [11] also compared the
Z h=2

dynamic performance of steel, aluminum and GFRP light poles Bij ¼ zQ ij dz ð3Þ
h=2
through experimental testing. The comparison of the performances Z h=2
is based on frequency and damping ratios corresponding to the Dij ¼ z2 Q ij dz ð4Þ
first and second-mode vibrations. h=2

In the present study, to analyze the dynamic behavior of ta-  ij are the transformed layer
where h is the laminate thickness and Q
pered FRP poles, tapered beam finite element model is employed.
stiffness components. Inverting Eq. (1) results in the following:
It is assumed that the material behavior is linear elastic and the
laminate of the cross-section of the wall is symmetric or antisym-
8
>
>
ex 9>
>
2
a11 a12 a16 b11 b12
38
b16 > N x >
>
9
>
> > > Ny >
>
metric angle-ply. Components of the laminate stiffness matrices >
>
> ey >>
> 6
6 a21 a22 a26 b21 b22 b26 7
7>
>
>
>
>
and the equivalent moduli used in the analysis are derived from >
> >
> 6 >
7> >
>
< cxy = 6 a61 a62 a66 b61 b62 b66 7 Nxy =
<
the classical lamination theory. To solve the time equations of dy- ¼6
6b
7 ð5Þ
namic analysis, precise time integration method is used. Once the
>
>
> j x >
>
> 6 11 b21 b61 d11 d12 d16 7> Mx >
7> >
>
> >
> 6 7>
> >
results obtained from the finite element model for a typical FRP
>
>
> j y >
> 4 b12 b22 b62 d21 d22 > My >
d26 5>
> >
>
>
: >
; >
: >
;
pole under various pulses (step, rectangular and sine pulses) were jxy b16 b26 b66 d61 d62 d66 M xy
verified through the comparison with ANSYS commercial software
results, the effect of various parameters such as geometry charac- The effective longitudinal elasticity modulus Eeff can be calcu-
teristics, concentrated mass at the pole tip, fiber type and orienta- lated from Eq. (5) as:
tion, on the dynamic behavior of tapered FRP poles are investigated 1
through an extensive parametric study. Eeff ¼ ð6Þ
a11 h
In some references [3], an approximate equation has been used
2. Effective longitudinal modulus
for the effective modulus Eeff, but Eq. (6) is a precise expression of
the effective longitudinal modulus [3].
Using the classical lamination theory [12], the stiffness compo-
nents of each generally orthotropic lamina can be determined and
the constitutive equation for the laminate is: 3. Finite element formulation
    
N A B e
¼ ð1Þ In order to accurately approximate the dynamic behavior of the
M B D j tapered poles, in this section, the tapered beam finite element
 S.M.R. Khalili, B. Saboori / Composite Structures 92 (2010) 275–283 277

formulation [3] is expressed. The general geometry of a tapered In view of Eqs. (7) and (8), Eq. (12) can be changed to:
composite pole is shown in Fig. 1. The tapered beam element of !
length L and circular hollow cross-section with uniform thickness @2m @2 2
3@ m
qA0 x 2 þ 2 EI0 x 2 ¼ 0 ð13Þ
h as shown in Fig. 2 is considered. The radii at the small and the @t @x @x
large ends are R1 and R2, respectively. Since the cross-section is
The shape functions required for the finite element procedure
thin-walled, the cross-sectional area and the moment of inertia
can be obtained by solving the following static equilibrium
are computed by A = 2pRh and I = pR3h, where the radius R varies
equation:
linearly over the length. This implies a linear variation of the area
!
A and a cubic variation of the moment of inertia I with respect to @2 2
3@ m
the length L. Thus, it is convenient to adopt a coordinate system EI0 x ¼0 ð14Þ
@x2 @x2
x–y as shown in Fig. 2, in which the area and the moment of inertia
are expressed as follows: The general solution for the above equation is:

A ¼ A0 x ð7Þ 1
mðxÞ ¼ c1 x þ c2 ln x þ c3 þ c4 ; a < x < a þ L ð15Þ
I ¼ I 0 x3 ð8Þ x
or in a matrix form:
where A0 and I0, are coefficients defined as follows: 8 9
  > c1 >
R1 > >
> >
A0 ¼ 2 p h ð9Þ  < c2 =
a mðxÞ ¼ x ln x 1
x
1 ¼ fg f gT fcf g ð16Þ
 3 > >
> c3 >
R1 : >
> ;
I0 ¼ p h ð10Þ c4
a
where subscript f is related to flexure. The coefficients cf,i (i = 1, 2, 3, 4)
Since R2/R1=(L + a)/a, the shift a with respect to the coordinate are related to the nodal displacements as follows:
origin is defined geometrically by:
8 9 2 a ln a 1 3
1 8 9
>
>
m1 >
> a >
>
c1 >
>
L >
a¼ ð11Þ
>
<h = 6 1
1
6 1
a  a12 0 7< c 2 >
7 > =
R2 =R1  1 ¼6
6
7 ð17aÞ
>
> > 4 a þ L lnða þ LÞ
m2 > 1
aþL 175>> c3 >
>
The equation of motion for flexural free vibration of the tapered : >
> ; 1 1
: >
> ;
h 1 aþL  ðaþLÞ 2 0 c4 f
beam is [6,7,13]:
! or in a concise form, they are expressed as follows:
@2 @2 @2m
qA þ EI ¼0 ð12Þ fmg ¼ ½N f fcf g ð17bÞ
@t2 @x2 @x2
Inverting Eqs. (17a) and (17b) and using Eq. (16), the deflection
where q is the mass density of the composite material and E is the
v(x) is related to the nodal displacements as follows:
effective longitudinal modulus.
mðxÞ ¼ fg f gT ½Nf 1 fmg ¼ fg f gT ½Bf fmg ð18Þ

From Eq. (18) it is found that:

m00 ¼ fg 00f gT fcf g ¼ fg 00f gT ½Bf fmg ð19Þ

where

fg 00f gT ¼ 0  x12 2
x3
0 ð20Þ

The strain energy W of the element is:

Z !2
aþL
1 @2m
W¼ EI dx
2 a @x2
Z aþL 
1
¼ fmgT ½Bf T fg 00f gðEI0 x3 Þfg 00f gT dx ½Bf fmg ð21Þ
2 a

Thus, the element stiffness matrix [Kf] is:

Z aþL 
½K f  ¼ ½Bf T fg 00f gðEI0 x3 Þfg 00f gT dx ½Bf  ¼ ½Bf T ½kf ½Bf  ð22Þ
Fig. 1. General geometry of a tapered composite pole [3]. a

Fig. 2. Coordinate system and degrees of freedom of the tapered element used in the present model [3].
278 S.M.R. Khalili, B. Saboori / Composite Structures 92 (2010) 275–283

where [kf] is: 4. Precise time integration method

2 3
0 0 0 0 In general, the dynamic motion equation with damping is [13]:
6 0 lnða þ LÞ  ln a 2 2
a 07
6 7
½kf  ¼ EI0 6
aþL 7 ð23Þ ½M€d þ ½Cd_ þ ½Kd ¼ Q ðtÞ ð29Þ
60 2 2 2 2
07
4 aþL  a a2  ðaþLÞ 2 5
where [M], [C] and [K] are the total mass, damping and stiffness
0 0 0 0
matrices, respectively and d, is the displacement vector.
One of the highly precise methods for solving the time equa-
The kinetic energy T of the element is: tions of dynamic analysis is the precise time integration method
Z aþL 2 [14]. This method cannot only give the precise numerical results,
1 @m
T¼ qA dx but also has an explicit integral scheme and unconditional stabil-
a2 @t ity. Assume the following:
Z aþL 
1
¼ fm_ gT ½Bf T fg f gðqA0 xÞfg f gT dx ½Bf fm_ g ð24Þ p ¼ ½Md_ þ ½Cd=2 ð30Þ
2 a
The second-order differentials in Eq. (29) can be transformed into
and the element mass matrix [Mf] is:
the first-order form as:
Z aþL 
m_ ¼ Hm þ f ð31Þ
½Mf  ¼ ½Bf T fg f gðqA0 xÞfg f gT dx ½BF  ¼ ½Bf T ½mf ½Bf  ð25Þ
a
where
where the terms of [mf] are given in explicit form as: ( )   ( )
q A D f0g
m¼ ; H¼ ; f ¼ ; q¼d ð32Þ
1 p B G Q ðtÞ
mf ;11 ¼ qA0 fða þ LÞ4  a4 g ð26aÞ
4
1 and
mf ;12 ¼ qA0 fða þ LÞ3 ð3 lnða þ LÞ  1Þ  a3 ð3 ln a  1Þg ð26bÞ
9 A ¼ ½M1 ½C=2; B ¼ ½C½M1 ½C=4  ½K;
1
mf ;13 ¼ qA0 fða þ LÞ2  a2 g ð26cÞ G ¼ ½C½M1 =2; D ¼ ½M1 ð33Þ
2
1 By considering Eq. (31), it is possible to obtain its general
mf ;14 ¼ qA0 fða þ LÞ3  a3 g ð26dÞ
3 solution:
1 2 Z
mf ;22 ¼ qA0 fða þ LÞ2 ð2ln ða þ LÞ  2 lnða þ LÞ þ 1Þ t
4 m ¼ eHt m0 þ eHðtnÞ f ðnÞdn ð34Þ
2
 a2 ð2ln a  2 ln a þ 1Þg ð26eÞ 0

mf ;23 ¼ qA0 fða þ LÞðlnða þ LÞ  1Þ  aðln a  1Þg ð26fÞ Suppose that the time step is s ¼ tkþ1  tk , then Eq. (34)
1 becomes
mf ;24 ¼ qA0 fða þ LÞ2 ð2 lnða þ LÞ  1Þ  a2 ð2 ln a  1Þg ð26gÞ Z
4 t kþ1

mf ;33 ¼ qA0 flnða þ LÞ  ln ag ð26hÞ mkþ1 ¼ T mk þ eHðtkþ1 nÞ f ðnÞdn ð35Þ

tk
mf ;34 ¼ qA0 L ð26iÞ
where T ¼ eHs .
1
mf ;44 ¼ qA0 fða þ LÞ2  a2 g ð26jÞ Considering that the nonlinear term is approximately linear
2 within a very small time step (tk, tk+1) [15]:
Thus, the equilibrium equation for the tapered beam element in f ðtÞ ¼ r 0 þ r 1 ðt  t k Þ ð36Þ
flexural mode (neglecting the effect of damping) can be written in
the matrix form as follows: Using the straight line equation within the time step,
f ðtkþ1 Þ  f ðt k Þ
½M€d þ ½Kd ¼ Q ð27Þ f ðtÞ  f ðt k Þ ¼ ðt  t k Þ ð37Þ
t kþ1  tk
where d is the nodal displacement vector and Q is the nodal force thus
vector.
f ðt kþ1 Þ  f ðtk Þ
In the case of symmetric laminate, all the Bij terms, and in the r1 ¼ ; r 0 ¼ f ðt k Þ ð38Þ
case of antisymmetric angle-ply laminate, all the Bij terms except s
B16 and B26 are equal to zero. Hence, for these two types of lami- Now, substituting Eq. (36) into Eq. (35) gives the precise time
nates, bending-extension coupling vanishes (it is an approximate integration equation as follows:
assumption for antisymmetric angle-ply laminate) and the axial
vibration is uncoupled from the flexural vibration. Since the flex- mkþ1 ¼ T  ½mk þ H1 ðr0 þ H1 r1 Þ  H1 ðr0 þ H1 r1 þ r1 sÞ ð39Þ
ural vibration of the transmission poles is more important, in the
present numerical investigation of the transient dynamic analysis,
5. Numerical results and discussion
for the symmetric or antisymmetric angle-ply laminates, the flex-
ural mode is only evaluated. Thus, the nodal displacement vector
To model the dynamic loads applied to the transmission poles
of the tapered element in the flexural mode is
in numerical analysis presented in this study, practically two loca-
8 9 tions are adopted. One at the pole tip to model the tension force of
> m1 >
> >
> > the cables that may be applied dynamically due to the factors such
< h1 =
d¼ ð28Þ as wind gusts or cable unilateral failure, and the other at about
> m2 >
> >
: >
> ; 80 cm from the pole base. The second location for the application
h2 of the load is adopted, because the transmission poles are mainly
 S.M.R. Khalili, B. Saboori / Composite Structures 92 (2010) 275–283 279

located near the streets and roads, and they are subjected to im-
pact of the passing vehicles.
The impulse loads considered in the current study are step, tri-
angular and sine pulses whose time functions are as follows (T1 is
the fundamental period of the pole):
8
<f ! if
0  t  T1
0
Step pulse : f ðtÞ ¼ ð40Þ
: if
0 ! t > T1
8
> if
>
> 2f 0 ðt=T 1 Þ ! 0  t  T 1 =2
<
if
Triangular pulse : f ðtÞ ¼ 2f ðt=T 1  1Þ ! T 1 =2 < t  T 1 ð41Þ
>
> 0
>
: if
0 ! t > T1
8
< f sinðp  t=T Þ ! if
0  t  T1
0 1
Sine pulse : f ðtÞ ¼ ð42Þ
: if
0 ! t > T1

5.1. Impulse loads at the pole tip

Fig. 3. Step, triangular and sine pulses applied at the tip of the pole ‘‘A” with [(10/
10)4] lay-up.
By combining the formulation of the tapered beam element and
the precise time integration method, a computer code for the tran-
sient dynamic analysis of FRP poles is provided by MATLAB 7.1
software (neglecting the damping effect). At the first step, a typical
pole named pole ‘‘A” with the geometric characteristics in Table 1,
made from E-glass/polyester having the fiber volume fraction of
0.65 with the material properties in Table 2 is considered. Eight
layers lay-up ([(10/10)4]) with respect to the pole axis, subjected
to step, triangular and sine pulses having a maximum force of 2 kN
(Fig. 3) is analyzed by the present finite element model (the funda-
mental period of the typical pole is 0.106 s).
For validating the model, pole ‘‘A” with [(10/10)4] lay-up was
also analyzed by ANSYS 11.0 commercial finite element software
using the total number of 2000 elements of type SHELL99 which
has eight nodes and 6 degrees of freedom (three displacements
and three rotations) in each node [16]. For comparison, the deflec-
tion of the pole tip (the maximum deflection) within the applied
duration of each pulse, for both the tapered beam finite element
and the ANSYS models, are shown in Figs. 4–6. Using a computer
with 3.06 GHz Intel Pentium 4 processor and 1.50 gigabytes of
physical memory, in the case of triangular impulse loading, the
run time of the ANSYS model is computed as 494 s, while the anal- Fig. 4. Tip deflection history of the pole ‘‘A” with [(10/10)4] lay-up under step
pulse at the pole tip.
ysis duration of the provided code by the tapered element model is
computed to be only 2 s, which is 247 times faster.
As it is observed in Figs. 4–6, there is an excellent agreement be- maximum force amplitude. Because, the area under the force–time
tween the presented method and the ANSYS models. The maxi- diagram which is a measure of the impact quantity, is greater for
mum discrepancy within the duration of the applied pulse the step pulse compared to the other two pulses (Fig. 3). Also,
occurred in the case of step pulse and it is 5%. For other cases, the trends of the tip deflection history of the pole under the trian-
the discrepancy is less. The other conclusion that can be obtained gular and the sine pulses are similar to each other, but are different
from these figures is that the maximum deflection of the pole in from the step pulse. The maximum deflection corresponding to the
the case of step pulse is greater than the maximum deflection ob- sine pulse is greater than the maximum deflection of the triangular
tained in the cases of triangular and sine pulses, having the same pulse. These results are shown in Fig. 7. The maximum deflection of

Table 1
Geometric characteristics of the pole ‘‘A”.

Length, L (mm) Top diameter, d1 (mm) Bottom diameter, d2 (mm) Wall thickness, h (mm) Number of lamina (NL)
4000 72 144 4 8

Table 2
Material properties of E-glass/polyester unidirectional lamina with fiber volume fraction Vf = 0.65 [3].

Longitudinal modulus, EL (GPa) Transverse modulus, ET (GPa) Shear modulus, GLT (GPa) Major Poisson’s ratio, mLT Density, q (kg/m3)
48 13.30 5.17 0.235 1904
280 S.M.R. Khalili, B. Saboori / Composite Structures 92 (2010) 275–283

Fig. 5. Tip deflection history of the pole ‘‘A” with [(10/10)4] lay-up under
triangular pulse at the pole tip.
the pole occurred at earlier time for step pulse compared to other
pulses. It is exactly at the half time of the impulse duration.
To study the effect of some parameters on the dynamic behav-
ior of FRP poles, only the numerical results corresponding to trian-
gular pulse are presented and discussed. Fig. 8 shows the tip
deflection history of the pole ‘‘A” with [(h/h)4] lay-up for various
fiber orientations, h. As it can be seen, increasing the fiber orienta-
tion angle h, results in greater maximum deflection of the pole due
to the smaller effective modulus, Eeff. The time of occurance of the
maximum deflection is increased by increasing the fiber angle.
To evaluate the effect of the tapered shape on the dynamic re-
sponse of the poles, the tip deflection history of the pole ‘‘A” with
[(10/10)4] lay-up, under triangular pulse is plotted in Fig. 9 for
various taper ratios d1/d2 (d1 is tip diameter of the pole and diam-
eter of the pole base d2 is kept constant). As it is observed, to be
more tapered (i.e. smaller taper ratio, d1/d2), the cross-sectional
moment of inertia along the pole decreases (Eq. (10)), which causes
the greater maximum deflection of the pole.
A significant parameter that affects the dynamic behavior of the
transmission poles is the presence of a cross-arm installed at the
top of the pole to hold the wires and the possible transformer

Fig. 6. Tip deflection history of the pole ‘‘A” with [(10/10)4] lay-up under sine Fig. 8. Tip deflection history of the pole ‘‘A” with [(h/h)4] lay-up under triangular
pulse at the pole tip. pulse at the pole tip, for various fiber orientations, h.

Fig. 7. Comparison of tip deflection history of the pole ‘‘A” with [(10/10)4] lay-up Fig. 9. Tip deflection history of the pole ‘‘A” with [(10/10)4] lay-up under
under various pulses at the pole tip. triangular pulse at the pole tip, for various taper ratios, d1/d2.
 S.M.R. Khalili, B. Saboori / Composite Structures 92 (2010) 275–283 281

equipments. These devices are modeled in the present work as a

concentrated mass M placed at the free end of the pole. The tip
deflection history of the pole ‘‘A” with [(10/10)4] lay-up, under
triangular pulse for various M/Mp ratios (Mp, the pole mass is
10.34 kg for the pole ‘‘A”) is plotted in Fig. 10. The effect of the con-
centrated mass M at the top of the pole on its dynamic behavior is
investigated in this Fig.
It can be concluded from Fig. 10 that by increasing the concen-
trated mass M, the maximum amplitude of the pole tip deflection is
greater and its occurrence is later. For better understanding of this
phenomenon, the quantities of maximum deflection of the pole tip
in Fig. 10 are listed in Table 3. The reason of slight increase in the
maximum deflection can be expressed as the concentrated mass M
leads to greater total mass moment of inertia of the pole, which
causes increased amplitude of the pole tip deflection history. The
tip deflection history of the pole ‘‘A” with [(10/10)4] lay-up, for
different number of layers (total thickness of the pole wall was
kept constant and equal to 4 mm) under triangular pulse has been
illustrated in Fig. 11 (NL is the number of layers in the cross-section Fig. 11. Tip deflection history of the pole ‘‘A” with [(10/10)4] lay-up under
of the pole wall). As it is observed, increasing the number of layers triangular pulse at the pole tip, for various number of the wall layers (NL).
from 2 to 10, the pole tip deflection decreases from 522.2 mm to
477.3 mm which indicates 8.6% reduction. It is due to the increase of 50 kN applied at the height of 80 cm from the base is obtained
in Eeff. Beyond 10 layers with constant total thickness, since Eeff is by present method and ANSYS model and compared in Fig. 12.
not changed significantly, the pole tip deflection is almost similar As observed from the figure, maximum discrepancy within the
to each other. duration of the applied triangular pulse is only 2.4%.

5.2. Impulse loads at the height of 80 cm from the base

To model the probable impacts imparted to the transmission

poles by passing vehicles, the location of application of various
pulses is considered at the height of 80 cm from the base. At first,
to verify the accuracy of the presented model in this loading case,
the tip deflection history of the typical pole ‘‘A” with [(10/10)4]
lay-up subjected to the triangular pulse with the maximum load

Fig. 12. Tip deflection history of the pole ‘‘A” with [(10/10)4] lay-up under
triangular pulse at the height of 80 cm from the base.

Fig. 10. Tip deflection history of the pole ‘‘A” with [(10/10)4] lay-up under
triangular pulse at the pole tip, for various mass ratios, M/Mp.

Table 3
Maximum deflection of the pole ‘‘A” with [(10/10)4] lay-up under triangular pulse at
the pole tip for various mass ratios, M/Mp.

Deflection Mass ratio

M/Mp = 0 M/Mp = 0.5 M/Mp = 1 M/Mp = 1.5
Maximum deflection (mm) 478.3 496.7 497.2 497.4 Fig. 13. Deflection history of the pole ‘‘A” with [(10/10)4] lay-up under step pulse
applied at the height of 80 cm from the base.
282 S.M.R. Khalili, B. Saboori / Composite Structures 92 (2010) 275–283

In the next step, the deflection histories of the entire pole ‘‘A”
with [(-10/10)4] lay-up subjected to step, triangular and sine
pulses with the maximum load of 50 kN applied at the height of
80 cm from the base are illustrated by the presented method in
Figs. 13–15, respectively. By comparing these figures with Figs.
4–6, it can be observed that if the location of the applied impact
load is at the distance of 80 cm from the base, a greater impulse
load (25 times), can create the same maximum deflection as to ap-
ply impulse load at the pole tip. It is observed that by applying the
load at the distance 80 cm from the base, the maximum deflection
occurred at the pole tip. The maximum deflection occurred for
step, sine, and then triangular pulses, respectively.
It is to be noted that in the case of step pulse loading at the
height of 80 cm from the pole base, at some of the time intervals,
the maximum deflection occurs in a position other than the pole
tip (Fig. 13). That is, applying the step pulse causes the pole to vi-
brate with the second mode shape which is dominant at some of
the time intervals, unlike the application of the impulse load at
the tip, in which the pole vibration is predominant with the funda-
mental mode shape.
In order to evaluate the composite pole performance in the case
of utilizing tougher fibers in different laminas of the cross-section,
a laminate with eight layers containing the inner and the outer
laminas from aramid (Kevlar149)/polyester and the other laminas
from E-glass/polyester (as hybrid laminate 1), and a laminate with
eight layers containing the inner and the outer laminas from car-
bon/polyester and the other laminas from E-glass/polyester (as hy-
brid laminate 2) are considered. The material properties of aramid
(Kevlar149)/polyester and carbon/polyester unidirectional laminas
[17] with fiber volume fraction of 0.65 are shown in Table 4. The
deflection history of the tip of the pole ‘‘A” with [(10/10)4] lay-
up, under triangular pulse having a maximum load of 2 kN at its
tip, for various laminates mentioned above is plotted in Fig. 16.
The magnitudes of the maximum deflection of the pole tip in
Fig. 16 are also listed in Table 5. As observed in Table 5, the use
of tougher fibers, only at the inner and the outer layers of the com-

Fig. 14. Deflection history of the pole ‘‘A” with [(10/10)4] lay-up under triangular
pulse applied at the height of 80 cm from the base.

Fig. 16. Tip deflection history of the pole ‘‘A” with [(10/10)4] lay-up under
triangular pulse applied at the pole tip, for various constituent material types.

Table 5
Maximum deflection of the pole ‘‘A” with [(10/10)4] lay-up under triangular pulse at
the pole tip, for various constituent material types.

Deflection Material
E-glass/polyester Hybrid Hybrid
laminate laminate 1 laminate 2

Fig. 15. Deflection history of the pole ‘‘A” with [(10/10)4] lay-up under sine pulse Maximum deflection 478.0 378.1 340.3
applied at the height of 80 cm from the base. (mm)

Table 4
Material properties of aramid (Kevlar149)/polyester and carbon/polyester unidirectional laminas with Vf = 0.65 [17].

FRP type Properties

Longitudinal modulus, Transverse modulus, Shear modulus, Major Poisson’s ratio, Density,
EL (GPa) ET (GPa) GLT (GPa) mLT q (kg/m3)
Aramid (Kevlar149)/ 113.05 15.67 6.03 0.32 1314
polyester
Carbon/polyester 157.25 16.0 6.11 0.255 1483
 S.M.R. Khalili, B. Saboori / Composite Structures 92 (2010) 275–283
posite pole cross-section, decreases the amplitude of the tip deflec-
tion significantly. For example, in the case of triangular pulse, using
aramid (Kevlar149) fiber at the inner and the outer laminas of the
cross-section (hybrid laminate 1), the maximum deflection de-
creases by 21% and using carbon fiber (hybrid laminate 2), the
maximum deflection decreases by 29% with respect to the case
in which the total layers of the cross-section are made from E-
glass/polyester.
6. Conclusions
In transient dynamic analysis of the FRP poles, the deflection
history of the pole tip under step, triangular and sine pulses ob-
tained from both tapered beam element and ANSYS models were
compared with each other, and a good agreement was observed.
In addition, the analysis duration of the tapered finite element
model is much less than the ANSYS run time. The maximum deflec-
tion of the pole due to the step pulse is the greatest, and the max-
imum deflection due to the sine pulse is greater than the
maximum deflection corresponding to the triangular pulse, with
identical peak value of applied load. In all the three pulses (step,
triangular and sine pulses), increasing fiber orientation angle of
the laminas with respect to the pole axis, decreasing top diameter
with respect to the pole base diameter and increasing concentrated
mass at the tip, causes the amplitude of the deflection history of
the FRP pole tip to increase. Increasing the number of wall layers
(keeping the total thickness of the wall constant), the pole tip
deflection decreases by very small amount. But above 10 layers,
the pole tip deflection histories become the same, since there is al-
most no change in the effective modulus of the laminate above 10
layers. The deflection amplitude of the pole tip due to the applied
impulse load at the height of 80 cm from the pole base is much less
compared to the amplitude of the tip deflection for an impulse load
with the same peak value applied to the pole tip. In the case of ap-
plied impulse at the height of 80 cm from the base, the maximum
deflection occurs at the top of the pole and it is for step pulse. Fur-
283
thermore, applying the impulse load at the height of 80 cm causes
the pole to vibrate predominantly with the second mode shape. Fi-
nally, it was observed that by utilizing the tougher fibers at the in-
ner and the outer laminas of the pole cross-section, the deflection
amplitude of the pole tip decreases significantly.
References
[1] Ibrahim S, Polyzois D, Hassan D. Development of glass fiber-reinforced plastic
poles for transmission and distribution lines. Can J Civil Eng 2000;27:850–8.
[2] Caracoglia L, Jones NP. Numerical and experimental study of vibration
mitigation for highway light poles. Eng Struct 2007;29:821–31.
[3] Polyzois D, Raftoyiannis IG, Ibrahim S. Finite elements method for the dynamic
analysis of tapered composite poles. Compos Struct 1998;43:25–34.
[4] Navaratna DR, Pian THH, Wittmer EA. Stability analysis of shell of revolution
by the finite element method. AIAA J 1968;6(2):355–60.
[5] Gould PL, Basu PK. Geometric stiffness matrices for the finite element analysis
of rotational shells. J Struct Mech 1977;5(1):87–105.
[6] Mabie HH, Rogers CB. Transverse vibrations of double-tapered cantilever
beams. J Acoust Soc Am 1972;51(2):1771–4.
[7] Mabie HH, Rogers CB. Transverse vibrations of double-tapered cantilever
beams with end support and with end mass. J Acoust Soc Am
1974;55(5):986–9.
[8] Noor AK, Burton WS, Peters JM. Assessment of computational models for
multilayered composite cylinders. Int J Solids Struct 1991;27(10):1269–86.
[9] Ibrahim S, Polyzois D. Ovalization analysis of fiber-reinforced poles. Compos
Struct 1999;45:7–12.
[10] Caracoglia L. Influence of weather conditions and eccentric aerodynamic
loading on the large amplitude aeroelastic vibration of highway tubular poles.
Eng Struct 2007;29(12):3550–66.
[11] Caracoglia L, Velazquez A. Experimental comparison of the dynamic
performance for steel, aluminum and glass–fiber-reinforced-polymer light
poles. Eng Struct 2008;30:1113–23.
[12] Jones RM. Mechanics of composite materials. Washington, DC: Scripta Book
Co.; 1998.
[13] Rao SS. Mechanical vibrations. MA: Addison Wesley Co.; 1995.
[14] Zhong WX, Williams FW. A precise time step integration method. J Mech Eng
Sci 1994;208:427–30.
[15] Tang B. Combined dynamic stiffness matrix and precise time integration
method for transient forced vibration response analysis of beams. J Sound
Vibrat 2008;309:868–76.
[16] ANSYS Inc. ANSYS user’s manual for rev. 11.0. USA: ANSYS; 2007.
[17] Springer GS, Kollar LP. Mechanics of composite structures. New
York: Cambridge University Press; 2003.