A review of ice accretion, detection, and mitigation methods for the gondola infrastructure application

Despite the vast economic (e.g., tourism) and environmental advantages (e.g., clean transportation) of gondola lifts, there is a lack of a comprehensive reference about ice accretion, ice detection, and mitigation solutions for safe operations of gondola infrastructure. This paper presents a state-of-the-art scientific literature review drawn from synergetic applications (e.g., power transmission lines, railways, bridges, and aviation structures) to investigate and identify the scientific technological knowledge gaps. An overview of gondola system components along with their operations, as well as the system components' design and safety standards, is provided to discuss the potential impacts of icing on gondola infrastructure. The literature review revealed a lack of comprehensive scientific studies explicitly addressing ice accretion on gondola systems. Insights from the comparable applications and discussion with the gondola operators indicate that ice accretion can pose significant safety risks and potential structural failures. Using opinion and critical reasoning from experts, some existing suitable ice detection and mitigation techniques are listed and mapped to critical gondola components with the potential for practical implementation. Several directions for future research are also identified to contribute to this underexplored field of research. • The multi-million-dollar industry of gondola lifts and ski resorts is prone to safety hazards & financial loss due to harsh climate and ice accumulation. • Not much research has been carried out so far to study the effects of icing on the gondola infrastructure, which highlights the clear knowledge gaps. • Gondola infrastructure comprises of complex system components where icing effects on each component are different. This requires the use of different methods for mitigating effects of ice on each system component. • Multiple failure modes have been detected from the history of incidents on different components of gondola infrastructure due to ice accretion. • The existing knowledge from similar applications is not entirely transferable. Development of new experimental models is needed in this underexplored industry.