Alain H. Peyrot Professor Emeritus Address/E-mail Program Affiliations Education Fields of Interest Awards & Honors Summary Files and Links

Contact Information

2218 Engineering Hall 1415 Engineering Drive Madison, WI 53706

E-mail: apeyrot@powline.com

Program Affiliations

• Civil and Environmental Engineering

Education

• Engineer, Ecole Centrale
• MS, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Fields of Interests

• structural engineering
• numerical analysis
• transmission line design
• wood structures
• cable structures

Selected Awards, Honors and Societies

• Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

Summary

My students and I are interested in a wide variety of problems in the general area of structural analysis and design. In the recent past, we have focused on structural reliability, design problems specific to electric power lines, cable and guyed structures, and computer-aided analysis and design techniques.

In the area of structural reliability, we have studied how the variability of loads (wind, ice, snow, live loads, etc.) and the variability of material strengths can be characterized and used to predict the probability of structural system failure. We have studied the reliability of wood roof systems and developed techniques for the reliability-based design of electric power lines.

We have worked on many problems associated with the structural design of electric power lines. This work included studying the dynamic phenomena produced by the breakage of conductors or insulators; developing efficient computer techniques for the nonlinear analysis of many different structures and entire transmission systems; and contributing to the writing of several code documents for the design of transmission structures. Lately, we have been interested in the optimization of an entire line.

With regard to cable and guyed structures, we have developed analysis techniques to handle the complexity of these geometrically varying structures. In addition, we are looking at the behavior of guyed TV towers and antennae under dynamic winds and unbalanced ice formation.

Finally, our group has been active in developing interactive software for analyzing and designing complete structural systems. We are interested in how the entire design process, starting with geometric information about a site, development of a viable structural system, and production of design drawings and documents, can be integrated into a single computer environment.

Files and Links of Interest

• Power Line Systems