MIT’s Micron-Sized Quest for the Ice-Proof Airplane [Ice]

Deicing. It’s more than just something that delays your flight as the airport searches for that missing truck-it keeps your plane from falling like a stone too! MIT scientists wish to help with the delay part. Enter ice-proof planes.

Working at the molecular level, the MIT folks are trying to know how frost forms on airplane wings and other surfaces, and what forms of designs or materials may be able to slow or eliminate the process altogether without the usage of potentially toxic chemicals or heating coils (which require additional energy beyond normal airplane functions).

The first idea, a perfect-hydrophobic coating (think exponentially more practical Rain-X for your windshield), was met with frosty ineffectiveness and from time to time made the ice form faster.

Frost, you notice, had no problem forming on super-hydrophobic surfaces. Worse still, once forst forms it actually nullifies the water-propelling characteristics that make super-hydrophobic applications so effective at defeating water build-up. In low pressure, super saturated atmosphere, say 30,000 feet inside the air, frost ” readily forms” on super-hydrophobic surfaces. Positively loves it. Frosty goodness everywhere, with lift-defeating ice soon to follow.

That said, the research did indicate that a textured surface, combined with super-hydrophobic coatings, could possibly be an efficient defense against ice formation. Might be. The research has yet to bear this hypothesis out completely, and researchers are still clamoring to create the proper texture and pattern. Beyond ice-fighting, the skin should also be cheap enough to manufacture cheaply, en masse.

” So as to be the true breakthrough,” said MIT assistant professor of mechanical engineering Kripa Varanasi in an interview with the MIT News Office. ” Scalable manufacturing techniques, with material that could survive in most of these applications.”

So far he knows that micron-sized textures are ineffective. Failure is welcomed in science, however, and Varansai is undeterred. Indeed, he described the failure as ” a vital cause the sector since it possibly tells us where not to search.”

Future experiments will evaluate larger parameters and scales. ” Icephobic” materials that defeat frost formation at the microscopic level may very well be flying you home to determine grandma for the holiday season before you realize it. [ MIT ]

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This post is tagged: assistant professor, hydrophobic coating, hydrophobic coatings, hydrophobic surfaces, mechanical engineering