Experimental study of icing and deicing situations of different wettability surfaces composite electric heating

Aircraft icing affects the safety of life and property, and traditional anti-icing methods have faced problems such as high weight and energy consumption. The superhydrophobic surfaces are used as a new material for passive anti-icing method. In view of the limited performance of superhydrophobic surface in extreme environment, a new anti-icing method combining superhydrophobic surface with electric heating technology is proposed. Test samples that covered different wettability coating on the leading edge of the wing and cooperating with the graphene heating film for electric heating composite are used for icing and deicing tests in the ice wind tunnel. The icing and deicing characteristics of four different wettability surfaces under different airflow speed and heating power are investigated. The results show that with the increase of surface hydrophobic property, the icing area ratio on the surface is gradually reduced. Under the same external environment, the ice area and minimum heating power of no ice accumulation of the superhydrophobic surface are reduced by 40.5 %–78.8 % and 29.1 %–38.6 %, respectively, compared with the hydrophilic surface. Moreover, the icing area is mainly concentrated in the area near the stagnation line. The morphology and freezing time of droplet impinging on the surface is different under different initial heating power and different ice accumulation shapes is exhibited. Combination of the superhydrophobic surface and electric heating significantly reduces the heating energy consumption compared with single superhydrophobic surface heating and single electric heating method, providing reference data for the development of new anti-icing technology.