On the use of smart on-board systems for aircraft ice removal

In order to prevent ice formation, different strategies may be adopted: passive coatings, active power consuming systems, or their combination. Several categories of coatings with ice-phobic behavior have been developed in the last decade, having as a common strategy the creation of rough and hydrophobic surfaces. The goal of the coating application is to repel water droplets, delay ice nucleation and significantly reduce ice adhesion. However, coatings alone are not sufficient to guarantee icing protection in a wide range of humidity and temperature conditions; rather, they should be considered as a complementary option to traditional and power consuming protection methods, such as mechanical ones, for reducing power consumption and the ecological footprint of active system. This work concerns with the early development stage of a low energy consumption system, based on ice-phobic coatings (passive technique) and ultrasounds (active technique), for detecting and removing ice build ups on treated surfaces. The capability of guided waves excited by a piezoelectric element, to remove ice accreted on a coated surface is investigated experimentally.