The Quantitative Detection System and Method for Natural Ice Covering of Composite Insulators by Quasi-Distributed Fiber Bragg Gratings

Long-term cold cause ice to build on transmission lines, making it risky for the electrical infrastructure to work. There is a lack of methods for quantitative detection of ice on overhead transmission line insulators. In this article, we built a quantitative detection system for natural ice covering of composite insulators by quasi-distributed fiber Bragg gratings and implanted six optical fibers with 13 quasi-distributed fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) each into the interface of a 110 kV composite insulator. Natural ice cover detection tests were done at an ice observation station in Guizhou, China, to study the types and mechanisms of ice cover. A method for quantitative detection of composite insulator ice cover using a quantitative ice cover detection model is proposed. The results showed that four types of ice cover appeared on the composite insulator of the ice observation station in turn. The average absolute error of the quantitative detection method proposed in this article is 9.7 g and the average relative error is 20.6% for the field detection of 42.5 g∼60.4 g of umbrella skirt glaze icing load, and the average absolute error is 24.6 g and the average relative error is 13.2% for the average 186.2 g of umbrella skirt mixed ice load.