Superhydrophobic Coatings as Anti-Icing Systems for Small Aircraft

Abstract

Traditional anti-icing/de-icing systems, i.e., thermal and pneumatic, in most cases require a power consumption not always allowable in small aircraft. Therefore, the use of passive systems, able to delay the ice formation, or reduce the ice adhesion strength once formed, with no additional energy consumption, can be considered as the most promising solution to solve the problem of the ice formation, most of all, for small aircraft. In some cases, the combination of a traditional icing protection system (electrical, pneumatic, and thermal) and the passive coatings can be considered as a strategic instrument to reduce the energy consumption. The effort of the present work was to develop a superhydrophobic coating, able to reduce the surface free energy (SFE) and the work of adhesion (WA) of substrates, by a simplified and non-expensive method. The developed coating, applied as a common paint with an aerograph, is able to reduce the SFE of substrates by 99% and the WA by 94%. The effects of both chemistry and surface morphology on the wettability of surfaces were also studied. In the reference samples, the higher the roughness, the lower the SFE and the WA. In coated samples with roughness ranging from 0.4 and 3 µm no relevant variations in water contact angle, nor in SFE and WA were observed.

Hydrogels as Durable Anti-Icing Coatings Inhibit and Delay Ice Nucleation

“…Over the past few decades, scientists have proposed two main strategies, active methods and passive methods, for fighting against icing. The active methods refer to the removal of the accumulated ice, which usually is costly and time-consuming [7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. Therefore, it is much more desirable to design passive anti-icing surfaces via lowering freezing temperature or reducing ice adhesion, with the benefit of reducing energy consumption [8].…”

Understanding the Solid–Ice Interface Mechanism on the Hydrophobic Nano-Pillar Structure Epoxy Surface for Reducing Ice Adhesion

“…Moreover, various anti-icing/icephobic surfaces were built by imitating natural structures such as the lotus and nepenthes [5,15] to change the interface state by introducing an air layer and a lubricating layer on micro-and nano-structure surfaces [16][17][18][19]. On this basis, researchers have successively fabricated various hierarchically structured superhydrophobic coatings with excellent anti-icing performance [14,20,21]. Furthermore, icephobic silicone rubber and its coatings…”

A Review on the Current Status of Icing Physics and Mitigation in Aviation

“…In addition, the smaller contact area between the water droplet and surface results in a low ice adhesion [140]. Developments of hydrophobic coatings as icephobic coatings are still ongoing [142][143][144][145][146][147][148][149]. Recently, the low ice adhesion of 9 kPa was reported on a micro-nanostructured surface in [150].…”