Development of new low lift snow-retardant insulated wire for overhead distribution line

Recently in the snowfall area of the northern part of Japan, snow-retardant insulated wires with a two fin structure are mainly used for 600 V and 6.6 kV class overhead distribution lines to protect against such snow damage. These two fins are placed longitudinally on the insulation at an angle of 180 degrees and their height and width are relatively small; 1 mm and 1.5 mm respectively. Although the snow-retardant insulated wire has good performance against snow damage, the violent vibration of the wire was observed several times under a strong wind and fatigue of conductor occurred as a result of the repeated high stress and vibration at the wire supporting part. In this paper, the aerodynamic vibration occurrence mechanism for snow-retardant insulated wires and measures for vibration suppression are discussed.<>