Anti-Icing Performance of Hydrophobic Silicone–Acrylate Resin Coatings on Wind Blades

Abstract

Abstract:The icing of wind blades poses a serious threat to the operation of wind turbines. The application of superhydrophobic coatings on wind blades can serve as a potential anti-icing method. This study presents the findings of simulations of the icing environment of wind blades coated with hydrophobic silicone-acrylate resin in an artificial climate chamber. Artificial icing tests were performed on NACA7715 wind blades with four different silicone-acrylate resin coatings and on uncoated wind blades, with test performed at five different wind speeds and three different angles of attack. Results show that wind blade surfaces with higher hydrophobicity yield better anti-icing performance, and that the ice mass of the wind blades decreases with increasing wind speeds and angles of attack. In addition, variations in ice mass, shape, and distribution on different wind blades indicate that increased hydrophobicity can help limit the areas that are subject to freezing. Hydrophobicity can affect the air cavities of the ice deposited on the wind blades, and surfaces with increased hydrophobicity can lead to lower ice mass and less ice adhesion. In brief, surfaces with higher hydrophobicity demonstrate better anti-icing performance and benefit from active de-icing.

Fracture-Promoted Ultraslippery Ice Detachment Interface for Long-Lasting Anti-icing

“…With introduction of elastic deformation, the mismatch of E leads to localized stress at the tensile strain zone of elastomer and generates microfractures on the contact interface, accelerating the detachment of ice, which is denoted as Mode i in this work. The τ ice needs to be expressed by eq 1 in this moment: 4,8,33 EW t ice a (1) where W a represents the adhesion work of ice and t indicates the thickness of the soft coating. Notably, τ ice remains virtually unaffected by t at the micron scale and cannot to be infinitely reduced by increasing t. 11 The interpenetration of E51-EP and α,ω-PDMS can occur in any proportion via mutually independent curing reactions, 17 which endows the coating with a wider regulation range of E (0.6−1775.9 MPa) but still far from that of ice (3.3−3.6 GPa 34 ) (Figure 4a and Figure S10).…”

From Extremely Water-Repellent Coatings to Passive Icing Protection—Principles, Limitations and Innovative Application Aspects

“…Importantly, even if icing event takes place, the retained air inflicts stress concentrations at the contact interface and impairs the ice bonds [58,84], resulting in up to 80%-90% lower energy necessary to maintain the protected surface free of ice [110,111]. Furthermore, the non-wetting Cassie-Baxter regime intrinsic for any superhydrophobic coating may support the freezing of droplets in a spherical shape (the so-called "ball-up" freezing), exemplified in Figure 4, and their facile dynamic detachment with low amount of applied thermal energy [105,[112][113][114].…”

Carbon Nanotube Wind Turbine Blades: How Far Are We Today from Laboratory Tests to Industrial Implementation?

“…They are, among others, characterized by (i) high energy efficiency and (ii) lower maintenance requirements/costs, (iii) without increasing the noise during operation. CNTs with their excellent thermal and electrical properties have been frequently considered as electrothermal heating elements. − In the latest reports, Xu et al indicated that surfaces with higher hydrophobicity demonstrated better antiicing performance and benefited from active deicing: surfaces of increased hydrophobicity led to lower weight of cumulated ice and negligible ice adhesion. Nevertheless, full exploitation of typically entangled and defective CNTs is difficult because nonuniform and viscous dispersions are formed therefrom.…”