Atmospheric Icing and Tower Collapse in the United States

Abstract

CRREL has established a database of communication tower collapses (TV, AM, FM, CATV, microwave, cellular, and so forth) that have occurred in the United States due to atmospheric ice accretion. The information was compiled primarily from newspapers articles and telephone interviews, but also from a multitude of other sources. The database currently lists 140 such failures of towers, ranging in height from 40 to 2000 ft above ground level (agl), dating as far back as 1959. For each case, I am compiling the following information: 1) structural characteristics of the tower, 2) the geographic location and topography, 3) a description of the collapse, 4) concurrent weather, and 5) damage. The database is growing and therefore not fully analyzed. In many cases, data in all these topic areas do not exist or are not available; some data I have yet to obtain. Trends in the current information are presented.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 1996
Accession Number
ADA430985

Entities

People

  • N. D. Mulherin

Organizations

  • Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Cable Grips
  • Collapse
  • Databases
  • Digital Data
  • Engineering
  • Failure Mode And Effect Analysis
  • Geography
  • Ground Level
  • Microwaves
  • Newspapers
  • North Carolina
  • Radio Stations
  • Radio Towers
  • Standards
  • Stations
  • Transmitters
  • United States

Readers

  • Climatology
  • Database Systems and Applications
  • Polar and Arctic Studies