ECAI 2014 - International Conference 6th Edition

Electronics, Computers and Artificial Intelligence

23 October -25 October, 2014, Bucharest, ROMNIA

CSA-Kapur Method to Determine Ice Load

Amount on Electric Transmission Line
Conductors
Bahadr AKBAL
Department of Electrical and Electronics
Engineering, Seluk University
Konya, TURKEY
bakbal@selcuk.edu.tr
Abstract Ice load causes important faults on electric
transmission lines (ETL), and power outages can be seen
for days because of ice load. So, ice load effect must be
prevented on ETL. One of the effect methods is Joule
Effect Method (JEM). In JEM, ETL conductor is heated
by current, and ice on conductor is melted. But
primarily ice load amount must be determined to
determine value of melting current. In this study, the
iced conductor thickness was used to determine ice load
amount, and image segmentation method was used to
determine the iced conductor thickness. Image
segmentation of image of iced conductor is difficult
because of environmental factor. So, multilevel
threshold method was used for image segmentation, and
Kapur Method was used as multilevel threshold method.
But detecting of optimal threshold levels with traditional
Kapur Method is difficult. So, Clonal Selection
Algorithm (CSA) was used to detect optimal threshold
level.
Keywords; Ice load, image segmentation, multilevel
threshold, Kapur Method, CSA.

I.

INTRODUCTION

Electric energy is delivered to consumers by using

transmission and distribution lines. Aerial and
underground cable lines are used as transmission and
distribution lines, but cost of aerial lines is less than
cost of underground lines. Thus aerial lines are usually
used as transmission and distribution lines. But aerial
lines are affected by environmental factors these
factors can be sorted as wind load, ice load, lighting
and wild animals. Ice load accumulates on conductors
of aerial lines and additional load occurs on aerial
lines. Therefore conductor breakage, electric pole
overthrow or electric pole bending can be seen. Many
methods were suggested to prevent ice load in
literature. One of the effective methods is Joule effect
method, but amount of ice load must be known to use
this method. Different methods were developed to
determine ice load. These methods can be sorted as ice
monitoring, capacitive sensor, meteorological sensors.
Also artificial intelligence methods have been used
with these methods to estimate correctly ice load
amount.
One of the effective ice load detection
methods is image segmentation method. Ice thickness
978-1-4799-5479-7/14/$31.00 2014 IEEE

Musa AYDIN
Department of Electrical and Electronics
Engineering, Seluk University
Konya, TURKEY
aydin@selcuk.edu.tr
can be monitored continuously by using image
segmentation method, and ice amount on conductors
can be determined according to ice thickness which is
determined by image segmentation. Image
segmentation has been made with bi-level thresholding
and multilevel thresholding methods. When the studies
in literature have been examined, the results of multilevel thresholding method are better than the results of
bi-level thresholding method. Kapur Method can be
used as multilevel thresholding method, but detection
of optimum threshold level with traditional Kapur
Method is difficult. So, the optimum threshold level
can be determined by using artificial intelligence
methods for multilevel threshold.
Particle swarm optimization was used with Otsu
Method in some multilevel threshold studies in
literature, and threshold levels of the made studies in
literature are maximum 5 levels. It was seen at the end
of this study that the result of this study is better than
traditional Otsu Method [1]. When PSO was used with
Kapur Method in image segmentation study, the
problem of this study was local optimum. Modified
PSO (MPSO) was developed to solve local optimum
problem. When MPSO was used, local optimum
problem have been solved [2]. Developed PSO was
used to develop convergence of traditional PSO for
multilevel threshold studies [3]. Convergence of the
suggested method is faster than convergence of
traditional PSO but 5 threshold levels were used and
the best level for segmentation was not defined in this
study. Noises on image are an important problem in
image segmentation studies. Hybrid PSO-GA was
used with Otsu method to eliminate noises on image
but threshold number and the best threshold level were
not indicated [4]. Image segmentation of low-contrast
iced conductor was made two-dimensional Otsu
Method. The result of suggested method is good but
algorithm speed is very low [5]. Video processing is
another method for ice thickness determination
studies. Two-dimension Otsu Method was used to
eliminate noises on image. The best simulated
annealing PSO (SA-PSO) was used to determine
optimum threshold level of two-dimension Otsu
Method but in this study single level threshold was
used [6]. Slope line search algorithm was used to

20

Bahadr AKBAL and Musa AYDIN

determine ice thickness of iced conductor. In the

suggested method single level threshold method was
used [7]. Image of iced conductor was used with
classification algorithms to determine ice thickness.
These algorithms are Support Vector Machine (SVM)
and Artificial Neural Network (ANN). When the
results of these algorithms were compared, it was seen
that the results of SVM is better than the results of
ANN [8].
Ice load occurs generally at between 2 C and -8C
temperature and at least 95% humidity. Some
environmental factors are problem for image
segmentation. Also in literature, environmental factors
had been ignored in the many studies which were
made to detect ice load. But in this study,
environmental factors will be taken into account.
Therefore, traditional image processing methods is not
enough to determine ice thickness. In this study,
multilevel threshold method will be used to determine
the iced conductor thickness. In literature, threshold
level is maximum 5 levels. These levels are not
enough to determine the iced conductor thickness.
Therefore, maximum threshold level will be increased
and Kapur Method will be used as multilevel threshold
method. Optimum threshold levels will be determined
with Clonal Search Algorithm (CSA).
II.

PROBLEM FORMULATION

Multilevel thresholding can be made Kapur

Method. Kapur's method which is based on maximum
entropy is proposed to make formulation of optimal
thresholding problem.
Kapur indicated maximum entropy method for
image segmentation. After gray level histogram of
image is obtained, the optimal threshold value can be
obtained. Image is indicated with L gray levels (0,
1,...,L-1). ith probability is defined p(i) as follows;

p (i ) =

h (i )
L 1

h(i)

(1)

i =0

h(i) is called the number of pixels of gray-level i.

Kapturs entropy can be described for bi-level
threshold as follows:
t 1

p (i )

i =0

H (0) =
t 1

p (i )

i =t

H (1) =

ln

ln

p(i )

p (i )

t 1

, 0 = p (i )

(2)

i =0

, 1 =

L 1

p(i)

(3)

i =t

If the sum of the class entropies is maximum value,

the thresholdlevel is optimum. This case is shown in
Equation (4) [9]:
t = arg max( H 0 + H1 )

(4)

Multilevel threshold can be made with Kapur

entropy when Equation (5) is used [9].

H (0) =

t1 1

p(i )

i =0

t2 1

p (i )

i =t1

t3 1

p(i )

i =t2

H (1) =

H (2) =
H ( j) =

t j +1 1

ln
ln
ln

p (i )

i =t j

L 1

p (i )

i =tm

H ( m) =

p (i )

0
p(i )

, 1 =

p (i )

2
ln

ln

t1 1

p(i)

, 0 =

t2 1

, 2 =

p(i )

j
p(i )

i =0

p (i )

i =t1

t3 1

p (i )

(5)

i =t2

, j =

, m =

t j +1 1

p(i )

i =tj
L 1

p (i )

i =tm

Sum of entropies must be made maximum to

obtain the optimal threshold levels values. This is
shown with Equation (6):

(t0 , t1 , t2 ,...., tm ) = arg max( H (i ))

III.

(6)

CLONAL SELECTION ALGORITHM

In this study, multilevel thresholding method will

be used to monitor ice load, and Kapur Method will be
used as multilevel threshold method. Detecting of the
most appropriate threshold levels and optimum
threshold values are difficult by using traditional
Kapur Method. So, artificial intelligence methods can
be used to detect the most appropriate threshold levels
and optimum threshold values. One of the effective
artificial intelligence methods to solve optimization
problems is Clonal Selection Algorithm (CSA). When
clonal selection algorithm (CSA) was used to solve
electrical engineering optimization problems, the good
results were obtained. So, CSA will be used to detect
the most appropriate threshold level and optimum
threshold values. Antigens and antibodies are the basic
elements of the CSA. Antigens are defined by
optimum value of function. Antibodies are used to
find optimum value of the function. To find the best
antibody should be used operators of clonal selection
algorithm.
Clonal selection operators occur from cloning and
mutation. In cloning operation, antibodies are cloned
by multiplying coefficient which is calculated
according to affinity of antibodies. So, population of
cloned antibodies is occurred (C). Then according to
mutation rate, mutation process is applied to
population of cloned antibodies. Mutation rate is
inversely proportional to affinity. Namely antibody
having high affinity is mutated less according to
antibody having low affinity. In Figure 1 is shown the
block diagram of CSA optimization algorithm. [10]
[11] [12]
1. Antibody population is occurred as random.
2. The fitness values of all the individuals are
calculated in Population P. Affinity is determined
according to the fitness value. Equation (6) is used as
objective function of CSA.
3. According to affinity value, the best antibodies
are selected and Pn population is occurred.

CSA-Kapur Method to Determine Ice Load Amount on Electric Transmission Line Conductors

21

4. These antibodies are cloned and C population is

occurred.

will be determined by using image segmentation

method.

5. Mutation process is applied to C population

which occurs from cloned antibodies. Generate a
mutated antibody pool (C1). The mutation rate of each
individual is inversely proportional to its fitness.

Ice load generally occurs at low temperature, low

wind speed and high humidity. An artificial climate
cabinet was designed for monitoring ice load. In the
climate cabinet, low temperature and high humidity
ambiance can be created.

6. The fitness values of all the individuals are

calculated in Population C1.
7. Similar antibodies in C are eliminated and C1 is
updated.

3 megapixel night vision outdoor camera was

used to monitor ice load in the climate cabinet. Image
of iced conductor which was obtained this camera
have been shown in Figure 2.

8. To select advanced antibodies, reselect process

is applied to C1.
New generated individuals are combined with
random generated individuals. Thus new antibody
population is occurred. This process prevent local
minimum fitting event. Thus various results may be
found in this algorithm.

Figure 2. Iced conductor

Histogram of image which is shown Figure 2 must

be obtained to apply multilevel threshold method. The
obtained histogram is gray level histogram. So, image
is converted to gray level. The obtained gray level
histogram is shown in Figure 3. If threshold level is
m, t0,t1,t2,tm are values of thresholding levels.
After threshold level is selected, the optimum
are
values of threshold levels (t0,t1,t2,tm)
determined with CSA. After the optimal values are
determined, image segmentation can be made, and
edge detection method is applied. The iced conductor
thickness is determined after these processes.

Figure 1. Flow chart of CAS

IV.

MATERIAL AND METHOD

One of the most effective ice load eliminate

methods is Joule Effect Method. In this method,
transmission line conductors are heated by using
current, and ice load on conductor is melted. Melting
current of ice load is determined according to amount
of ice load. Therefore ice load amount must be
determined accurately. In this study, ice load amount

Figure 3. Gray level histogram and threshold levels

22

Bahadr AKBAL and Musa AYDIN

V.

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

In literature, there are many image recognition

studies which are related to multilevel threshold
method. But in these studies, threshold level is
maximum 5 levels, 5 levels are not enough for the
iced conductor thickness detection study. So,
threshold levels were increased in this study. When
CSA-Kapur Method was applied to iced conductor
image which is shown Figure 2, Table I was obtained.
TABLE I.

THE RESULTS OF CSA-KAPUR METHOD

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Threshold
Level

Iced
Conductor
Thickness
(cm)

7.43

96 132 188

5.84

96 130 190 225

5.69

94 125 172 209 239

5.71

91 122 155 194 213 237

5.69

90 112 135 170 198 219 241

5.69

77 97 118 143 177 202 220 240

5.61

72 91 115 131 155 188 208 229

247

10

5.60

11

5.58

Threshold Values

72 88 105 123 146 176 200 216

232 249
73 90 105 121 139 163 187 205
223 238 251

Threshold levels and their values which are shown

in Table I were applied image of iced conductor for
multilevel threshold method. Different iced conductor
thicknesses were determined for each threshold
levels. The obtained thicknesses were shown in Table
I. The most accurate result was obtained with 9-level
thresholding. The result which was obtained by 9level thresholding has been shown in Figure 5.

Figure 4. The result of 9-level thresholding

VI.

obtained according to traditional Kapur method.

Minimum 3 levels and maximum 11 levels were
accurately used to detect the iced conductor thickness.
It was seen at the end of study that the result of 9level thresholding is closest to real ice value. If iced
conductor thickness is determined by using CSAKapur Method with 9-level thresholding, ice load
amount can be calculated. So, ice melting current can
be calculated accurately. After ice load is melted by
Joule Effect Method, ice load effect can be prevented
on electric transmission lines.

CONCLUSION

Image segmentation method is effective method to

determine amount of ice load. Some environmental
factors affect to image quality of iced conductor. In
this study, image segmentation was made by using
multilevel threshold method, and Kapur method was
used as multilevel threshold method. When Kapur
method was used with CSA, the fast results were

This study was supported by 113E635 number

TBTAK (The Scientific and Technological
Research Council of Turkey) Project and Seluk
University Coordinatorship of Scientific Research
Projects.
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