Clear, Spray-On Ice Repellent
Mar-14-16
A new kind of spray-on, rubber-based ice repellent from the University of Michigan could have applications ranging from airplane wings to frozen food packaging.The coating takes the somewhat counter-intuitive approach of using a ‘grippy’ textured composite consisting of a blend of common synthetic rubbers. When the soft rubber flexes—either from gravity of a breeze—it causes the ice to release and fall away. The rubber coating can also be adjusted to fit the balance between durability and level of ice repellency.
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[GIZMAG.COM][NS.UMICH.EDU]
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Inflight icing on aircraft is called impact icing for a good reason; it is quite different from freezer ice. Ice impinging on a wing's leading edge disintegrates into very small pieces and sticks to surfaces as has been described "like grim death". This occurs even on so-called hydrophobic materials such as silicone. In addition, even if a surface is hydrophobic on the leading edge of an aircraft wing, ice hitting the narrow portion of a leading edge called the stagnation zone will form an "ice cap" and remain held in place by the wind and continue to grow in size as more ice particles are accumulated. The result is dangerous interruption of air flow patterns and potential loss of lift. Similar hydrophobic material have been tested over the past many years in ice and wind tunnels with very poor results. There are other ice conditions such as super-cooled water impingement, among others, which are even greater threats to flight safety. Even if ice is shed, the next problem is erosion of whatever the coating on the leading edge of the wing model. Coatings would be subject to water droplets, ice particles and solid (sand for example) particles traveling at hundreds of miles per hour.
My point here is that no matter how a coating performs on the bench, the leap from laboratory to actual environmental testing will be very challenging. Claims to the contrary are premature.
Posted by Richard Hamm on March 20, 2016
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Inflight icing on aircraft is called impact icing for a good reason; it is quite different from freezer ice. Ice impinging on a wing's leading edge disintegrates into very small pieces and sticks to surfaces as has been described "like grim death". This occurs even on so-called hydrophobic materials such as silicone. In addition, even if a surface is hydrophobic on the leading edge of an aircraft wing, ice hitting the narrow portion of a leading edge called the stagnation zone will form an "ice cap" and remain held in place by the wind and continue to grow in size as more ice particles are accumulated. The result is dangerous interruption of air flow patterns and potential loss of lift. Similar hydrophobic material have been tested over the past many years in ice and wind tunnels with very poor results. There are other ice conditions such as super-cooled water impingement, among others, which are even greater threats to flight safety. Even if ice is shed, the next problem is erosion of whatever the coating on the leading edge of the wing model. Coatings would be subject to water droplets, ice particles and solid (sand for example) particles traveling at hundreds of miles per hour.
My point here is that no matter how a coating performs on the bench, the leap from laboratory to actual environmental testing will be very challenging. Claims to the contrary are premature.
Posted by Richard Hamm on March 20, 2016
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