Rime icing on bundled conductors

With the increase of electric demand and development of high voltage technology, bundled conductors are used more frequently in new power line networks. Ice load on conductors is a major structural design criterion of power lines, and icing on bundled conductors is different from that on a single conductor because of the shadowing effect by the windward conductor. In this paper, rime icing on bundled conductors was simulated and the results were compared with that on a single conductor. The results show that the ice mass of leeward conductor is usually smaller to a degree that depends on the angle and distance between the windward conductor and the leeward conductor. Icing on several different bundle geometries was simulated, which allows the selection of the optimum bundle arrangement in regard to icing. We also made icing experiments simulating bundled conductors in an icing wind tunnel. The experimental results show a good agreement with the results of numerical simulations.