The motion of the water droplets on insulators with superhydrophobic coating and its influences on icing

Abstract

The motion mechanism of the supercooled droplets on insulator surfaces with superhydrophobic coating will affect the amount and distribution of droplets, which further affects the icing on surfaces. In this paper, the tests were carried out to explore the motion process of the droplets before frozen on superhydrophobic surfaces under the condition of continuously spray supercooled droplets in artificial climate chamber. The motion properties of water droplets on superhydrohobic surfaces and its influencing factors such as Contact Angle (CA), Contact Angle Hysteresis (CAH) and roughness were investigated. Besides, the artificial icing tests for glass insulators with different superhydrophobic or hydrophobic coatings were carried out and the influences of motion properties on icing of insulators were analyzed. The results show that the larger CA and roughness are and the smaller CAH is, the easier it is for droplets to roll off and the better motion property is, causing the longer icing delay time of insulators.