Enhancing Wind-Induced Collapse Resistance of Transmission Tower-Line Systems with Nonlinear Air-Spring Absorbers

This study introduces a novel control device, the nonlinear air-spring absorber (ASA), aimed at improving the collapse resistance of transmission tower-line systems subjected to severe wind loads. Initially, a detailed finite element (FE) model is developed for a representative transmission tower-line system, grounded in an actual engineering project, and the wind load applied to the system is obtained. Then, the working principle and design method of the ASA are introduced, and the device is embedded into the FE model. The Inter-Segment Displacement Ratio (ISDR) is employed as a collapse indicator to systematically evaluate, via fragility analysis, the effectiveness of the ASA. The effectiveness of the ASA at improving the collapse resistance of the tower-line system under different wind attack angles is systematically studied through a fragility analysis. The results show that the device effectively suppresses the structural wind-induced vibration and significantly improves the system’s collapse resistance. In particular, the vibration suppression effect is most pronounced along the transmission line (90° wind attack angle), with the critical collapse wind speed increasing by up to 23%. This study provides a practical and feasible technical approach for addressing the problem of wind-induced collapse control.