Assessment of strength and measures to upgrade a telecommunication steel tower

The present paper deals with the analytical study of an existing telecommunication tower to assess the strength of the current configuration for additional reflectors, according to the owner’s decision. The evaluation of the capacity of the tower for the loads of the reflectors and antennas, as well as for the wind, ice and seismic loads, as specified by current design codes, was performed using a finite element model. Besides, after the owner’s recent decision to add new reflectors, the required strengthening was estimated and the measures to upgrade were also provided.