Anti-icing performance and mechanism of hydrophobic cycloaliphatic epoxy resin modified by polysiloxane

Abstract

Composite insulator is the key insulation equipment of outdoor transmission line. Hydrophobic cycloaliphatic epoxy resin is a new type of insulation material used in insulators. Ice accretion on insulators is a common phenomenon in alpine regions, which seriously threatens the safety of power grid. However, the anti-icing performance of hydrophobic cycloaliphatic epoxy resin has not been studied. In this work, the effect of polysiloxane content on the hydrophobicity and roughness of cycloaliphatic epoxy resin was studied. Then, the icing drop test and icing shear strength test were designed to analyze the effect of polysiloxane content on the anti-icing performance of cycloaliphatic epoxy resin. The results show that polysiloxane can significantly improve the static contact angle of cycloaliphatic epoxy resin. With the increase of polysiloxane content, the static contact angle increases. Polysiloxane has little effect on the surface roughness of cycloaliphatic epoxy resin, which shows that the change of static contact angle of cycloaliphatic epoxy resin is mainly affected by surface tension. Polysiloxane content is the dominant factor causing the change of surface tension. Polysiloxane modified cycloaliphatic epoxy resin can shorten the icing drop time, reduce the icing shear strength and improve the anti-icing performance. The anti-icing mechanism of polysiloxane modified cycloaliphatic epoxy resin can be described by icing shear strength of water freeze in Cassie state model. The static contact angle is the main reason affecting the icing performance of polysiloxane modified cycloaliphatic epoxy resin.