Experimental study on ice monitoring method for 10 kV transmission line with tangent tower in alpine landform

Ice monitoring methods were applied for 110 kV and above transmission lines with tangent towers. However, the change in the vertical span is not considered, and a significant difference lies in the tower-conductor structure of 10 kV transmission lines. For this reason, a proposal is made about the ice monitoring method for the 10 kV transmission line with tangent tower in alpine landform, which includes the ice monitoring system based on pressure measurement and corresponding equivalent ice thickness calculating methods. Different methods calculate the vertical span under different height difference coefficients. A finite element simulation model and a simulated ice load experiment system are established based on real conductors and insulators. Experiments and simulations under four simulated terrains are conducted within 2.5–20 mm ice thickness range. The comparison is made between this method and the method without considering the change in vertical span. The results show that the two methods are consistent and the relative errors are lower than ±4% in simulation and ±10% in experiment when the height difference coefficient is 0. When it is not 0, the relative errors of this method fall between +0.38% and +6.78% in simulation and −6.40% to +6.60% in experiment, while the relative errors of the method without considering the change in vertical span ranges between −11.13% and −20.23% in simulation and −11.65% to −23.20% in experiment.