Deicing of aluminum alloy rod by laser induced bubble explosion reaction

Icing is a major security risk for transmission line of power systems in the cold winter. Traditional deicing methods such as mechanical deicing and thermos-fuse methods are characterized by high energy cost, time consuming and inevitable obvious damage to the external surface of transmission line. A novel method of laser induced bubble explosion reaction (LIBER) to remove ice accretion on transmission line is promoted in this work. The effects of laser power, scanning speed, thickness of foaming layer and ice layer on laser deicing were studied and the results showed that the removal of ice accretion could be achieved with scanning speed of 10 ∼ 20mm/s and laser power ranging from 1000 to 2000W. Ice accretions with the thickness from 3 to 7mm were successfully removed with no damage or negligible damage to the substrate surface, which validated the feasibility of this new LIBER-based deicing method that would have significant applications to the actual deicing scenarios of power grid.