Bare, insulated and covered conductors 163

heat-resistant aluminium alloy wire

galvanised steel wire

Figure 9.19

Cross-section of TACSR conductor

9.10.4.3 (Z)TACSR (Z)TACSR has galvanised steel strands for the core surrounded by (Z)TAL strands surrounding them. Figure 9.19 shows the construction. (Z)TACSR conductor is thus almost identical to conventional ACSR conductors. The main advantage of (Z)TACSR is that its aluminium alloy strands do not anneal at temperatures up to 150 C for TAL and 210 C for ZTAL (temperatures above 100 C would cause annealing of the aluminium strands in a standard ACSR). (Z)TACSR can therefore be used to uprate existing lines where some additional clearance is available. Steel-cored conductors (and other non-homogeneous conductors) have what is known as a knee-point. This is a temperature above which the higher thermal expansion rate of aluminium causes all the stress of the conductor to be borne by the steel core. Beyond this knee-point temperature, therefore, the conductor experiences a sag increase due to the expansion of steel alone. This new expansion coefficient will be lower than that for the conductor at lower temperatures, resulting in relatively low sag increases when operated at high temperature. Standard ACSR exhibits this property, but usually at a temperature beyond the annealing limit. The TAL alloy of TACSR allows this behaviour to be exploited. 9.10.4.4 G(Z)TACSR Gap-type conductor [8] has a unique construction. There is small gap between the steel core and the innermost shaped aluminium layer in order to allow the conductor to be tensioned on the steel core only (Figure 9.20). This effectively fixes the conductors knee-point to the erection temperature, allowing the low-sag properties of the steel core to be exploited over a greater temperature range. The gap is filled with a heat resistant grease to reduce friction between steel core and aluminium layer, and to prevent water penetration. For a given thermal rating, the G(Z)TACSR will be able to reduce the sag as compared with the conventional ACSR. Special erection techniques are required for gap conductors compared with those of standard construction. 9.10.4.5 (Z)TACIR As with (Z)TACSR, (Z)TACIR [9] (Figure 9.21) has a conventional ACSR-type stranded construction but makes use of material innovations to give properties allowing the conductor to be operated at high temperatures. In place of the steel strands of (Z)TACSR, it has galvanised or aluminium-clad invar alloy steel wires for the core