Temperature characteristic of DC ice-melting conductor

China is developing DC ice-melting method for the de-icing of overhead transmission lines after the ice storm in 2008. Melting ice apart, the Joule heat produced by DC heats the conductor. It is significant to investigate the temperature characteristic of the ice-melting conductors in order to protect the conductor from being damaged by overheating. This paper puts forward a model to simulate the temperature-rising process of ice-melting conductor, and the results have been investigated in the artificial climate chamber. Our research shows that the ice-melting process can be divided into two stages, namely pre-ice-shedding and post-ice-shedding, and temperature characteristics of conductor of the former is dissimilar from that of the latter. In the first stage, the direct reason of the conductor temperature-raising is air-gap, and conductor temperature is affected by ice thickness, while in the second stage, it is influenced by wind velocity and ambient temperature. The conductor temperature of both stages can be adjusted by changing current density.