Metallic Plate Buckling As a Low Adhesion Mechanism for Durable and Scalable Icephobic Surface Design. Issue 1 (27th November 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Alasvand Zarasvand, Kamran; Pope, Cory; Mohseni, Majid; Orchard, David; Clark, Catherine; Golovin, Kevin
• Is Part Of: Advanced materials interfaces. Volume 9:Issue 1(2022)
• Page Start: n/a
• Page End: n/a
• Publication Date: 2021-11-27
• Subjects: anti‐icing -- buckling -- fracture of ice -- icephobic -- low adhesion; Materials science -- Periodicals; 620.11
• DOI: 10.1002/admi.202101402
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2196-7350

Abstract

Abstract: Ice accretion is significantly detrimental to a range of different industries worldwide. Current methods for reducing ice adhesion include the use of lubricants, hydrophobic coatings, or soft elastomers, all of which exhibit limited durability. As an alternative, here sparsely confined metallic sheets are suspended and the surface buckling instability is tailored, resulting in ice adhesion strengths on par with these prior strategies but without the use of any coatings. These Buckling Elastomer‐like Anti‐icing Metallic Surfaces, or BEAMS, exhibit ultra‐low ice adhesion (<1 kPa) and the mechanical resilience of metals. Results from an icing wind tunnel confirmed the efficacy of BEAMS toward impact ice accreted in realistic conditions via the high‐speed impingement of ≈20 µm droplets at −20 °C. The BEAMS sheet confinement, boundary conditions, and physical dimensions of both the ice and the metallic plates can be altered to minimize ice adhesion via the mechanics of plate buckling. Additionally, BEAMS that detach ice without directly contacting it are designed, the scalability of BEAMS is demonstrated, and their durability is verified using rain erosion, sandblasting, thermal extremes, and repeated icing/de‐icing, both in an icing wind tunnel and on a benchtop system. Abstract : Suspending sparsely confined metallic sheets and tailoring the surface buckling instability results in ultra‐low ice adhesion strengths without the use of any coatings. Dislodging a large piece of ice accreted on stainless‐steel BEAMS by its own weight (τice ≈ 0.26 kPa) demonstrates that the low ice adhesion of BEAMS is scalable.