Ice Adhesion and Formation on Aluminum Surfaces

Abstract

The economic drawback of ice formation on exposed surfaces is of high relevance for the profitability of applications spanning from aviation to power industry. Strategies to minimize this effect have been widely investigated and generally low ice adhesion surfaces have been sought with the understanding that ice adhesiveness is related to wettability. Here an attempt is made to decouple the effect of surface energy and morphology from ice adhesiveness and a new technique is proposed and utilized that allows to statistically evaluate the ice detachment likelihood after an impact. Similarly treated surfaces are compared by recording contact angle hysteresis, analyzing the surface morphology and the ice detachment probability. Furthermore, flat and anodized aluminum surfaces are analyzed, showing that low surface energy has a favorable effect while surface roughness has a detrimental effect on ice adhesiveness. Next to the ice adhesiveness, also ice formation is investigated. Here the growth rate as well as the condensation behavior on different surfaces is studied. Generally surfaces that are superhydrophobic or have a low thermal conductivity will show a slower formation of ice.

Date of Award	2014
Original language	American English
Supervisor	Marco Stefancich (Supervisor)