The Lobe Structure in Ice Accreted on an Aluminium Conductor in The Presence of a Dc Electric Field

Abstract

Supercooled droplets of 38 μm mean volume diameter are accreted on a smooth aluni mum cylinder of 3.15 cm in diameter in order to study the effect of an electrostatic field upon ice formation on a power-line conductor. The results obtained show that ice grown in the presence of an applied negative field of 15 kV cm−1 exhibits a cusped-lobe structure characterized by surfacial outward knobs, convex rings of fine air bubbles and radial lines of large air bubbles; in the same conditions, a positive electric field of 15 kV cm−1 does not produce such lobe features. On the other hand, accretion tests performed in the absence of an electric field with a 33 μm droplet spectrum show that the well-developed cusped-lobe structure appears in ice at low ambient temperature and air velocity. In the present experimental conditions, the formation of cusped lobes observed in the presence of a negative electric field could be explained by a decrease in the temperature of the deposit due to a reduction of impact velocity of the charged droplets and/or an increase in the local heat-transfer coefficient at the surface of the ice accretion. Corona wind from ice points, always in the opposite direction to the impinging droplets, may also reduce their impact velocities. In addition, corona wind and roughness of the surface may contribute to a better evacuation of the latent heat and thus decrease the deposit temperature. The difference between the effects of a negative DC field and those of a DC positive field of the same strength comes from a stronger ionization intensity and/or a stronger deformation of water drops in the negative electric field.