Measuring Ice Growth on Anti-Icing Surfaces

Background

Ice is problematic.  Whether it forms on the hull of a ship, the wing of an airplane, or the blades of a wind turbine, accumulation of ice leads to efficiency and safety issues.  For example, when an airplane is in flight, the moisture will form ice which disrupts airflow and create drag to lower fuel efficiency and, possibly, a situation where the plane can lose lift.  A similar thing will happen with ships in extremely cold regions.  For wind turbines, the ice will create drag, but also an imbalance in the blades, so they must be shut down during the winter.  The goal of this work is to better understand how ice adheres to surfaces so it can be prevented.

Project Details

Previously, we have studied surfaces capable of disrupting the ice adhesion interface known as the quasi-liquid layer.  In collaboration with NASA and Penn State, we are extending those studies to measure growth rates of ice crystals from and towards our model surfaces.  By doing so, at the molecular level, we can provide valuable information to experimentalists and modelers who study this phenomena at the microscopic (versus molecular) level. 

The project will begin as a baseline comparison.  In other words, we will use molecular level models to measure the growth rates from a number of methods.  With those measurements, we will extend it to our more exotic surfaces to provide valuable insight to our collaborators.

Skills Development

• Molecular dynamics modeling
• Nucleation and crystal growth
• Programming
• Unix environments

Research Duties

• Learn the basics of running simulations
• Write codes to analyze results
• Explore how to translate simulation results to inhibition effects
• Compare different surfaces
• Write progress reports and share information with collaborators 
• Modify inputs of microscopic models

Impact of Research

In the long run, we hope to develop surfaces capable of passively mitigating ice formation, growth, and adhesion.  We can reduce the need for applying anti-icing agents to commercial airplanes to speed up traffic on the ground at airports.  Airplanes will not form ice while in flight to improve its fuel efficiency to lower cost and its carbon imprint.  Wind turbines will be able to operate year round to produce clean energy for cold regions like South Dakota and Minnesota. 

Research Team

You will be working with both Dr. Hadley and Dr. Kustas

Dr. Hadley has expertise in modeling smart materials and interfaces. This person will serve as the lead on the project.

Dr. Kustas has experience in developing anti-icing coatings.  They will provide experimental insight and support for the project.

For more details on this project, contact the lead investigator.