Hurricane Harvey in 2017 led to over 850 transmission structures downed or damaged and caused damages to over 1,200 km of transmission and distribution conductors. Hurricane Sandy in 2012 caused over 200 transmission line failures. Moreover, the increasing interdependence between the power infrastructure and other systems is a reason of major concern. The Center has developed a multi-scale probabilistic approach that goes from analyses of the mechanics of individual bolted connections to the electrical study of power lines spanning hundreds of thousands of miles.
Read a representative journal paper on this line of research.