Abstract

Proper removal of accreted ice from the structures that are usually in contact with the harsh and cold weathers has always been a big challenge for the industry. Different methods and technologies have been adopted for ice management in wind turbines and aircraft. The purpose of this thesis is the fabrication of an electro-thermal heating element, as de-icer or anti-icer, for polymer-based composites. In this study, the plasma spray technique was utilized for the deposition of a nickel-chrome-aluminum-yttrium (NiCrAlY) coating layer as a heating element on top of a glass fiber-reinforced polymer composite (GFRP). For the fabrication of a high-quality and appropriate heating element coating layer, three types of composite samples with different surface types were manufactured. The first composite type was fabricated by the stacking of 16 GFRP prepregs, the second type was fabricated by the stacking of 16 GFRP and a 200 stainless steel mesh cloth as the top layer, and the last composite type was fabricated by the stacking 16 GFRP prepregs and a 400 stainless steel mesh cloth as the top layer. Moreover, to find the NiCrAlY powder with the proper particle size distribution for the generation of a heating element, two types of NiCrAlY powder with the fine and coarse particle size distributions were used for the coating of the composite samples. After coating of the composite samples with different spray parameters, and examining them under an optical microscope, it was found that using a 200 stainless steel mesh as the top layer of the composites makes a significant improvement in the uniformity, adhesion, deposition efficiency, and quality of the coatings. For more analysis, several tests were conducted on the coated samples for determining their mechanical and electrical properties. It was found that using a proper surface modification method and set of spray parameters could result in improving the coating bonding strength significantly. The electrical and thermal analyses of the coated samples also showed that the coated samples have a high capability in the generation of heat and acting as a heating element.