Wind tunnel errors in drag measurements of power conductors

Abstract The aerodynamic drag coefficients of electrical power conductors, as measured in wind tunnel experiments, are in general much higher than those inferred from field observations of operating lines. The discrepancy may result from errors in the field measurements or the wind tunnel tests. The purpose of this project was to identify errors in the wind tunnel testing technique. A series of experiments was conducted to investigate the importance of the model aspect ratio and the end conditions present at the junction of the model and the wind tunnel wall. The results show significant errors are possible in the wind tunnel experiments due to these effects but none can account for the large discrepancy between wind tunnel and field data.