[TowerTalk] World's toughest fixes - 2000' tower

[jimlux]

Robert West wrote:
> Most, if not all, tall buildings now are constructed with a dampening system
> at the top to counteract the sway.  When I first saw the segway I had a
> thought that someday similar technology may do away with the dreaded guy
> wires..............  An active system every 10 feet or so keeping everything
> in perfect balance.  Someday, maybe.
> 
> 

Interesting.. but the active system (in buildings) only deals with 
transient loads (e.g earthquakes).  It can't deal with a static load..

And, the whole thing on guys is to let you use a thinner, more flexible 
column.  What you spend in land usage lets you save on materials for the 
column.. after all, you could always just build a bigger unguyed tower. 
(there's also the issue of the base.. )

Now, one could put linear actuators all up and down the flexible tower 
so that it can "lean into the wind".  In theory, you could extend 
something Rohn 25 sized to hundreds of feet, unquyed, limited only by 
the compression strength of the column to take the bending moment at the 
base.

Until the power failed...  (although, with clever design, one could 
actually recover some, not all, of the wind energy tending to push the 
tower over)

It's not unlike you being able to stand on one foot without guying. You 
have an active control system to compensate for the transient inputs.


Probably not a productive investment in the ham market<grin>....