Experimental Study on Disintegration Characteristics of Water Droplets in Icicle‐Flat Plate Gap Beyond Critical Discharge Voltage

ABSTRACT The disintegration behaviour of ice‐melting droplets aggravates the discharge risk of ice‐covered insulators and the disintegration characteristics of droplets at applied voltages exceeding the critical discharge voltage lack in‐depth study. This paper takes the icicle‐flat plate model as the research object and experimentally explores the characteristics of the disintegration of the ice‐melting droplets beyond critical discharge voltage. The results show that the droplet disintegration critical length shows a trend of shortening slowly and then sharply with the increase of applied voltage. The fine‐flow jet after the formation of the Taylor cone causes a sudden reduction in the disintegration critical length. The disintegration position of the droplet gradually moves downward with the increase of applied voltage and then suddenly moves upward. The internal particles in the liquid line of the droplet cause a seepage effect, which makes the weak point of the droplet disintegration move down continuously. At higher electric field strengths, most droplets detach as a whole, causing a sudden upward shift in the disintegration location. The droplet disintegration critical growth rate increases with the applied voltage. The jetting of droplets under stronger electric field forces leads to a sharp rise in the growth rate.