MIT Researchers Develop Anti-Icing Technology - AVweb flash Article

A research team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has developed a simple technology that could help to prevent icing on aircraft wings, the university announced on Wednesday. The team experimented with ridged surfaces to see if they could reduce the time it takes for a water droplet to hit a surface and then recoil. The quicker the water is repelled from the surface, the less time it has to freeze. "We've demonstrated that we can use surface texture to reshape a drop as it recoils, in such a way that the overall contact time is significantly reduced," said James Bird, the team's lead researcher. "The upshot is that the surface stays drier longer … which has the potential to be useful for a variety of applications." But won't ridged surfaces reduce aerodynamic efficiency? Not necessarily, one of the researchers told AVweb.

"It is known that adding features in certain ways helps reduce drag and improves aerodynamic efficiency," said Kripa Varanasi, a professor of mechanical engineering. "For example, blade surfaces in some turbines are dimpled to reduce drag and also increase cooling. The goal would be to be optimize for both deicing/water repellency and aerodynamic efficiency." Varanasi said he expects further experiments will show the contact time between the water and the surface can be reduced even further, through optimization of the texture. "I hope we can manage to get a 70 to 80 percent reduction," he said. The textures are easy to create on aluminum surfaces using standard tools, Varanasi said, so the process could easily be adopted for industrial production.

It'd be nice if this technology could work on fan and compressor/stator blades on engines like the GEnx engine on the B-747-8.... it would relieve the need to cut new metal/redesign/recertify the compressor section.

Hello again,

In this month's issue of AOPA Pilot, Dave Hirschman discusses using Rust-Oleum's Never Wet hydrophobic spray. The set up is a two-can pack. To use-apply a base coat, and then wait 30 minutes to apply the final coat. (I would copy and paste the article here, but I am not able to.) He applied this coating to the leading edges of the wings and tail of his RV-4. He let the airplane sit out during a snowfall, and apparently the Never Wet really helps the snow slide off. He also took the airplane flying (there is a video for digital AOPA Pilot subscribers, too) and discussed how the sprayed leading edges were ice free while unprotected areas picked up trace ice. This Never Wet spray is not transparent, so the spray is not suitable for windows/windshields. He of course cautions not to use this a FIKI set up (Flight Into Know Icing), but as a time buying protection for inadvertent ice encounters.

NeverWet Liquid Repelling Treatment

Based on those "tests", I wouldn't take it into inadvertent or forecast icing conditions. Sounds like a promising product, but I'd like to see it properly tested. I think the right way to do this would be to use an aircraft certified into known icing conditions, so any encounter, inadvertent or known, is a real test, not to mention there's an "out" at the same time. This technology is great and it needs to be accelerated IMO.

Definitely will be interesting to see where this goes. Could be a great asset to those conducting operations in IMC or winter conditions. About time we saw some relatively inexpensive ice protection for GA aircraft.

The potential for something like this is really impressive!

That being said, I wonder if it would interfere with the ability of anti-icing fluid to adhere when it is applied. As good as this stuff could potentially be, I can't imagine it ever being good enough to totally eliminate the need for Type IV fluid under certain conditions.

What happens when you smash some bugs on the surface? Ice adhering to the guts could make some interesting aerodynamics.

Yikes, would hate for a bug strike to be treated like a bird strike! But my thought is that if ice and water won't stick to it, neither will bugs.