Design of transmission line towers by metaheuristic algorithms: A comparative study

Latticed towers are essential components of high-voltage transmission lines. Saving resources in their construction is crucial for economic and environmental efficiency, but the safety of these structures under severe loads is of major importance for the reliability of the power distribution system. This work explores optimization techniques to improve the structural design of transmission line towers according to international code specifications and considering loads due to construction, wind, and cable rupture. A self-supporting tower with 52 m high and 1721 members is designed using the proposed methodology, showing that the computational tool obtains competitive solutions. Four metaheuristic algorithms are applied to solve the problem and compared in terms of efficiency and computational cost in extensive tests with more than 1080 independent optimizations with different parameter settings. The Generalized Normal Distribution Optimization greatly outperformed the other methods, raising as a good alternative for the optimization-aided structural design.