Galvanic Corrosion of High Temperature Low Sag Aluminum Conductor Composite Core and Conventional Aluminum Conductor Steel Reinforced Overhead High Voltage Conductors

A High-Temperature Low-Sag Aluminum Conductor Composite Core (ACCC) bare overhead transmission line conductor utilizing a load bearing unidirectional carbon and glass fiber reinforced epoxy composite rod was evaluated for potential galvanic corrosion problems. A series of corrosion tests were performed in 0.5 M NaCl aqueous solution at room temperature, and at 85°C. The corrosion performance of the ACCC conductor was compared to a conventional Aluminum Conductor Steel Reinforced (ACSR) conductor. The bi-metallic ACSR design suffers inherently from galvanic corrosion, while the ACCC design does not develop galvanic corrosion unless its fiberglass composite galvanic corrosion barrier is compromised. Even with a severely compromised barrier in the ACCC conductor, the measured galvanic corrosion rate of the aluminum in the ACCC conductor was much lower than the galvanic corrosion rate measured in the ACSR conductor.