A Study of Guyed Towers

The effects of certain nonlinear factors in the behavior of tall guyed towers are studied to determine their importance with respect to a static analysis of such towers. Nonlinear features that are studied in detail are: (1) The movement of the upper end of the guys caused by eccentricity of their connections to the mast and by flexural and compressive shortening of the mast; (2) variation of flexural stiffness of the mast because of axial loads; and (3) the influence of wind force on the guys. Numerical results are presented for an 1,100-ft, four-level tower subjected to both symmetrical and unsymmetrical loading conditions. Comparisons are made between an accurate solution and solutions that neglect certain combinations of the nonlinear factors of the problem. The results were obtained with the aid of a general guyed-tower program written for the IBM 7090 computer, and approximately 2 min of computer time were required for each solution.