Cold Spray Nozzle Design for Deposition of Adhesive Perfluoroalkoxy Alkane as an Icephobic Coating

Abstract

Abstract The development of efficient ice mitigation systems for surfaces exposed to atmospheric ice has been in progress for decades. The need for passive anti-icing systems is essential as current ice mitigation systems require a substantial amount of energy and their implementation involves complex manufacturing considerations. Fluorinated polymer coatings are among the candidates for passive anti-icing systems. While many processes have been investigated to produce them, these methods can be costly, time consuming and can cause thermal damage to the substrate. The current work aims to explore a green and cheap alternative approach by using cold spray. Furthermore, the cold spray process offers advantages such as being a portable easy to perform solid-state coating process for eventual repairs. This work uses computational and experimental approaches to design and test a new dedicated nozzle for the efficient deposition of adhesive perfluoroalkoxy alkane. Computational results reveal that for the same operating conditions, the use of the new nozzle design increases particle impact temperature, improving the deposition of the feedstock material, as confirmed experimentally. The wetting behaviour, ice nucleation time and ice adhesion strength were compared for 6 different surface types, including bare aluminum, various polymer materials and the cold spray perfluoroalkoxy alkane coating on aluminium substrate. Results indicate that the as-sprayed coating performs as both a superhydrophobic and icephobic surface.