Date of Award

August 2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Mechanical Engineering

First Advisor

Hallie Chelmo

Second Advisor

Surojit Gupta

Abstract

From the formation of ice on the leading edges of aircraft and their wings, wind turbine blades, and even roadways and powerlines, it is clear that modern infrastructure suffers from ice formation and adhesion. Due to this fact the development of materials and surfaces to mitigate the effects of icing have gained much attention in recent years. While there are many different anti-icing and deicing techniques, the development of intrinsically ice-phobic materials and material surfaces shows the most promise as a passive anti-icing method. In this work an accurate Comprehensive Ice-Phobicity Test Stand (CIPTS) has been created to test two popular definitions of ice-phobicity, ice adhesion strength and nucleation time. Varying material compositions (PTFE and PTFE-ZnO composites) and surface roughness’s (0.14µm≤Sa≤21.79µm) ice-phobic properties are characterized. Analysis of PTFE-ZnO composites has shown that there is not always a direct link between the ice-phobic properties of ice adhesion strength and nucleation time.

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