Safety Evaluation of 5G Antenna Mounted on Power Transmission Towers Using a New Mounting Device Under Environmental Loads

Mounting 5G antennas on existing power transmission towers can meet the needs of both power supply and 5G communication. Current mounting techniques have the problems of cumbersome process and slow efficiency. This research designs a new type of mounting device of 5G Antenna on power transmission towers. The components and the installation process of this mounting device are introduced, the stress behavior of the mounting device under self-weight load, ice load and wind load is studied through finite element analysis (FEA), and the safety of the mounting device under self-weight load, ice load and wind load is verified through experiments. Furthermore, the safety of power transmission towers is evaluated after 5G antenna is mounted under environmental loads. The results show that: (1) the wind load has the dominant effect on the 5G mounting device, and the proportion of stress caused by wind load is between 89–97%; (2) FEA and experiment show that all the stresses of the device components do not exceed the yield strength limit 355 MPa, indicating that the mounting device is safe to support the 5G antenna under gravity, ice load and wind load; (3) the displacements and stresses of power transmission towers will increase after 5G antenna is mounted, but the values do not exceed the limit, indicating that the power transmission towers are still safe for operation after 5G antenna is mounted.