Advanced Nanocomposite Low Adhesion Icephobic Coating for Aerospace Applications

Icing is a major safety issue for flight operations in the civil, defense and space sectors. Ice can form on critical components during takeoff/landing, or while in service, depending on prevailing weather conditions. Aircraft manufacturers relies on two different approaches to prevent ice buildup using an active anti-icing system to melt ice buildup or deicing chemicals/ice repellent surface to minimize the buildup ice. The use of active anti-icing systems offers good protection, however can add significant penalty to overall weight, energy consumption and cost. Aerospace industry is in need for an advanced ice repellent surface to effectively minimize ice buildup on critical components with no modification to existing design can provide significant relief to ice prone systems. In this paper, Oceanit will present its most advanced nanocomposite low ice adhesion icephobic coating technology that was developed and demonstrated for application on metallic surfaces to provide the lowest ice adhesion to significantly reduce ice buildup. Oceanit’s advanced icephobic coating was tested to be one of the lowest ice adhering coating (ice adhesion strength = 5.1kPa) ever tested and evaluated by US Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab (CRREL). The following paper will provide in depth discussion on the characterization and applications of the icephobic coating relevant to aerospace industry.