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Re: [TowerTalk] wind load

To: "Tower and HF antenna construction topics." <towertalk@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] wind load
From: "Dan Schaaf" <dan-schaaf@att.net>
Reply-to: "Tower and HF antenna construction topics." <towertalk@contesting.com>
Date: Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:02:03 -0500
List-post: <towertalk@contesting.com">mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
How does this wind loading information apply to a bertical antenna which is 
rigidly mounted at the base and flexes in the wind?
In addition, if the vertical antenna is mounted on top of a 22 ft tower, 
which is anchored in concrete, how does this info apply?
22 ft tower is short in comparison and maybe can be considered non-movable 
and then the vertical can be seen as the same as if it were mounted on the 
ground.

Dan Schaaf
K3ZXL
"In the Beginning there was Spark Gap"
www.k3zxl.com
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Charles Coldwell" <coldwell@gmail.com>
To: "Tower and HF antenna construction topics." <towertalk@contesting.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 18, 2010 2:55 PM
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] wind load


On Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 2:02 PM, Gene Smar <ersmar@verizon.net> wrote:
>
> To get these figures into engineering terms, you'd have to convert the
> wind speed into pounds-per-square-foot
> http://www.arraysolutions.com/Products/windloads.htm and multiply by the
> EFFECTIVE area of the antenna. Then this force is applied to the top of 
> the
> tower; let's say the tower is 100 feet tall. In the example, the force of 
> a
> 70 mph wind is 12.54 psf. The total forced applied to the tower at 100 
> feet
> AGL would be 12.54 X 15 = 188 pounds.

Well, that is substantially less than the 450 pounds I came up with
from the "30 pounds per square foot in a 70 MPH wind" rule mentioned
upthread.

> The trick comes in determining what the effective area (sqft) of the
> antenna really is. Manufacturers are unclear in their literature in how
> they calculate the advertised areas of their antennas.

I suppose this is due to uncertainty in the drag coefficient since the
geometric cross-section should be unambiguous.  Rewriting the Array
Solutions formula as

F = A * 0.00256 * W * W * Cd

the effective cross-section is the product A * Cd, where A is the
geometric cross-section, and Cd is 1.2 for long cylinders and 2.0 for
flat plates.

> That calculation showed that my D40 rotatable dipole had a spec from
> Cushcraft of 1.3 sqft, whereas the "shadow area" of the elements 
> calculated
> out to be 3.55 sqft. Go figure.

Yeah, I can't make up that difference no matter how I play around with
drag coefficients.

-- 
Charles M. Coldwell, W1CMC
"Turn on, log in, tune out"
Winchester, Massachusetts, New England (FN42kk)

GPG ID:  852E052F
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