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Re: [TowerTalk] tower novice seeks advice

To: "W5PR" <W5PR@swbell.net>, <towertalk@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] tower novice seeks advice
From: Jim Lux <jimlux@earthlink.net>
Date: Fri, 06 May 2005 16:56:10 -0700
List-post: <mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
At 03:55 PM 5/6/2005, W5PR wrote:
>I might add to Jim's excellent response that the solar panels will "catch" a
>lot of wind and cause wind loading.  Be sure to design for that wind loading
>and put equal areas of panel on each side of the tower so that the twisting
>torque on the tower will be minimized...
>
>Chuck W5PR

There are brackets made especially for this sort of thing, too. You're not 
the first to want to hang big panels off a tower.  It's fairly common for 
things like cellular and emergency communications systems.  None of this is 
rocket science. It is, however, fairly hard core civil/structural 
engineering (albeit not on the scale of designing the Grand Coulee dam), 
and not to be done on the back of an envelope or catalog order form (unless 
you have a large budget and very casual risk acceptance posture).  Chuck 
mentioned just one of the "gotchas" that might crop up.  Especially if 
you're trying to do it on the cheap. Given that you're in a degree field 
not known for monster research budgets, you're going to be hunting not for 
the "standard full-boat catalog" design, but for something a bit more 
improvisational.


Maybe someone needs a Master's thesis project: "Design of lightweight 
inexpensive field deployable environmental monitoring stations for boreal 
studies".  If you want bold and innovative, take a look at Tensegrity 
structures. Originally created by Snelson: 
http://www.kennethsnelson.net/sculpture/outdoor/21.htm  (You can go see 
these ones in D.C., I think)

Here's a 160+ ft free standing tower built in Germany: 
http://www.mero.de/bausysteme/downloads/artikel/tens_tower_e.pdf
Stiff enough that the top only moves 1/1000 of the height.  Kind of massive 
overkill for you.

Look for some works by R.E. Skelton and his students at UCSD 
(http://maeweb.ucsd.edu/~skelton/).  Very light, strong (but flexible) 
structures that might work very nicely for you.



_______________________________________________

See: http://www.mscomputer.com  for "Self Supporting Towers", "Wireless Weather 
Stations", and lot's more.  Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with any questions 
and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.

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