Ice thickness/density measurement method based on its capacitance effect

Abstract In winter, the ice‐covered conductors pose a significant influence to the safe operation of power grids. Despite extensive research in this area, measuring on‐site ice accurately remains a major challenge. Obtaining accurate data of ice thickness and density is the basis of ice disaster prevention and emergency treatment of power grids. The current measurement methods based on power line's tension and insulator string's inclination or video image are commonly used at power grids, which cannot accurately monitor the actual ice thickness, and also cannot measure ice density. Based on long‐term natural icing field observations and extensive simulation tests conducted in the artificial climate chamber, this paper puts forward a new method for monitoring the ice thickness and density using the capacitance effect of ice layers due to their dielectric characteristics. Theoretical analysis and testing results demonstrate that the capacitance of an ice layer steadily increases with both increasing thickness and density, which can be used for accurate determination of changes of both the parameters mentioned above. Therefore, the proposed method based on the capacitance effect of ice layer on power lines can be used to monitor the ice thickness and density of power lines accurately.