Inhibiting Ice Accumulation on Conductors by Using Sheath Treated with Super-hydrophobic Surfaces

Ice accumulation on transmission lines often leads to great damage to power systems.Super-hydrophobic surfaces are proposed to inhibit ice accumulation on electrical power equipment.A novel anti-icing method was presented for conductors with super-hydrophobic sleeves.The super-hydrophobic sleeves were prepared by applying polydimethylsiloxane(PDMS) and nano-silica hybrid coating on the outer surface of polyethylen terephthalate(PET) sleeves.Hydrophobicity and ice adhesion strength of the super-hydrophobic surface were investigated.Ice accumulation experiments were carried out on ordinary conductors,super-hydrophobic coated conductors,PET sleeve-covered conductors,and super-hydrophobic PET sleeve-covered conductors.Ice accumulation morphology,accumulated ice weight,and the icicle length of these four types of conductors were studied and analyzed.At the end of the 3 h ice accumulation experiment,the ice weight and icicle length on the conductor with super-hydrophobic PET sleeve was only approximately one tenth and one seventh of that on the untreated conductor respectively.Furthermore,the water contact angles of super-hydrophobic coated aluminum surface and super-hydrophobic coated PET sleeve were about 163o in average.The results indicate that the super-hydrophobic coating is effective in inhibiting ice accumulation on conductors.However,the use of a super-hydrophobic PET sleeve is a significantly more effective method,comparing with the application of a super-hydrophobic coating directly on the conductor.

Ice accumulation on transmission lines often leads to great damage to power systems. Super-hydrophobic surfaces are proposed to inhibit ice accumulation on electrical power equipment. A novel anti-icing method was presented for conductors with super-hydrophobic sleeves. The super-hydrophobic sleeves were prepared by applying polydimethylsiloxane（PDMS） and nano-silica hybrid coating on the outer surface of polyethylen terephthalate （PET） sleeves. Hydrophobicity and ice adhesion strength of the super-hydrophobic surface were investigated. Ice accumulation experiments were carried out on ordinary conductors, super-hydrophobic coated conductors, PET sleeve-covered conductors, and super-hydrophobic PET sleeve-covered conductors. Ice accumulation morphology, accumulated ice weight, and the icicle length of these four types of conductors were studied and analyzed. At the end of the 3 h ice accumulation experiment, the ice weight and icicle length on the conductor with super-hydrophobic PET sleeve was only approximately one tenth and one seventh of that on the untreated conductor respectively. Furthermore, the water contact angles of super-hydrophobic coated aluminum surface and su- per-hydrophobic coated PET sleeve were about 163~ in average. The results indicate that the super-hydrophobic coating is effective in inhibiting ice accumulation on conductors. However, the use of a super-hydrophobic PET sleeve is a significantly more effective method, comparing with the application of a super-hydrophobic coating directly on the conductor.