152 - Relationships between water wettability and ice adhesion

Dr. Adam J. Meuler PhD, J. David Smith, Prof. Kripa K Varanasi, Dr. Joseph M. Mabry, Prof. Gareth H. McKinley, Prof. Robert E. Cohen Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, United States; Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, United States; Propulsion Directorate, Edwards Air Force Base, Edwards Air Force Base, CA, United States

Ice formation and accretion may
hinder the operation of airplanes, power lines, windmills, ships,
telecommunications equipment, etc. Yet despite the pervasiveness of the icing
problem, the fundamentals of ice adhesion have received relatively little
attention in the literature and it is not widely understood which attributes
must be tuned to design icephobic surfaces. Here we probe the relationships
between advancing/receding water contact angles and the strength of ice
adhesion to a range of test coatings. Contact angles are measured using a
commercial goniometer while the shear strengths of ice adhesion are evaluated
with a home-built laboratory-scale apparatus. The coatings investigated are
comprised of commercially available homopolymers blended with fluorodecyl
polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (FluoroPOSS), a low surface energy
additive known to enhance liquid repellency. These test surfaces allow us to
explore a broad range of water wettabilities and we find that high receding
water contact angles correlate with reduced ice adhesion.

Monday, August 23, 2010 04:00 PM
Symposium in Honor of Kash Mittal (02:00 PM - 05:20 PM)
Location: The Westin Boston Waterfront
Room: Carlton