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Anti-icing/De-icing Systems to Improve Aircraft Performance and Safety

Project Funding:
Austrian national programm “Takeoff”    
Project Coordination:
AAC
Project Partners:
AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, FH Joanneum,
PROFACTOR, AMES

Operating aircraft under adverse weather condi­tions can result in the icing of aircraft parts. This is not only a prob­lem in terms of perform­ance and conveni­ence, but also repres­ents a consid­er­able safety risk. Icing has led to numer­ous plane crashes and remains one of the most crit­ical aviation safety risks.

The goal of the project is the manu­fac­ture of new and innov­at­ive mater­i­als as a surface coat­ing for aircraft to prevent icing. Furthermore, micro-mech­an­ical (piezo) actu­at­ors will be developed for active de-icing. All test samples are tested in an adapt­ive wind tunnel in which icing condi­tions can be simu­lated. Simulation tools are also tested for their applic­ab­il­ity. The results can be applied not only to aviation but also to the auto­mot­ive industry, wind parks, archi­tec­ture, water trans­port and more.

In the course of the project, the initial phase analyses the condi­tions lead­ing to the form­a­tion of ice and at the same time invest­ig­ates the adhe­sion prop­er­ties of ice. Three differ­ent approaches to the prob­lem are taken. The first of these invest­ig­ates ice preven­tion by redu­cing adhe­sion with the use of a chem­ical surface coat­ing. Another approach attempts to actively remove ice using piezo actu­at­ors. In addi­tion, an attempt is made to simu­late ice form­a­tion, together with the test­ing of samples in the ice wind tunnel. The aero­naut­ics industry is taking part in the project and the results will be eval­u­ated in respect to their relev­ance and applicability.