Abstract

Ice formation and accumulation cause many inconveniences in daily routine. Drawbacks in
infrastructures such as road structure, overhead telecommunication, wind turbines, and transportation are examples of icing consequences. Inflight
icing, for instance, can brings about
severe aerodynamic and mechanical problems. Formation, adhesion, and accumulation of ice disfigure the airflow on the aircraft’s critical aerodynamic surfaces, decreasing the lift and
increasing the drag force, and causing undesired circumstances. Hence, significant efforts have been devoted to developing methods to mitigate icing problems, including antiicing,
and deicing strategies. There are three types of ice protection systems, including passive, active, and hybrid
systems frequently used in antiicing
mode, deicing mode, or both. Several inadequacies in these methods encourage researchers to investigate the feasibility of developing more efficient and
reliable iceopposing systems. Accordingly, based on the literature, designing, and producing efficient ice protection systems are needed, especially regarding safety, energy consumption, costefficiency, and longlasting
performance. The present work aims to study a specific active ice protection system fabricated by a thermal spray technique (electrothermal heating) in harsh icing
conditions. Moreover, this work will study this ice protection system’s performance by integrating
it into a unique architecture (empowering efficiency). Also, this work aims to briefly study the performance of a passive ice protection system (nanotextured superhydrophobic coating) in antiicing
performance. Plasma spray technique as a versatile and cost-effective surface modification
alternative is used as the manufacturing method in this study. Several coatings are developed and
studied during this project to determine the most promising materials, processes, and parameters
for achieving the optimized active ice mitigation system. Furthermore, the functionality of the established system is assessed using an icing wind tunnel. Besides, challenges and solutions for improving the desired performance of tobeheated surfaces are discussed.