Investigation of The Anti-icing Performance of Superhydrophobic Silicone Rubber

Composite insulators, as an important part of outdoor transmission lines, always suffer from various environmental stress, and the large-scale icing accretion problem is one of the dangerous threats. In this paper, superhydrophobic silicone rubber was prepared by surface coating method, and its anti-icing performance compared with pristine silicone rubber was investigated. The superhydrophobic surface can repel water droplets so that the droplets can be removed easily before freezing. For the sessile droplets, the freezing speed on the pristine silicone rubber is faster than the process on coated silicone rubber. After completing freezing, the deicing force on pristine silicone rubber is bigger than that on coated silicone rubber. In summary, the superhydrophobic silicone rubber showed more excellent performance in inhibiting ice accretion than the pristine silicone rubber, and it is a potential solution to the icing problem in the power system.