Novel sandwich structural electric heating coating for anti-icing/de-icing on complex surfaces

Abstract

It is very difficult to remove ice accreting on some miniature aircraft components with irregular surfaces such as flight sensors, increasing the risk of serious flight accidents. However, few existing anti-icing/de-icing systems can be fabricated on such complex surfaces. In this study, a novel sandwich structural electric heating coating (SEHC) is proposed to solve this problem. An intermediate heating layer was coated between the upper and lower electrode layers in SEHC for heating on complex surfaces. The heating layer was prepared by adding multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) into a polyurethane matrix. The SEHC with 2% MWCNTs weight fraction showed the best electric heating properties. The electric heating uniformity mechanism of SEHC was explained by establishing the resistance model and simulation analysis. Moreover, apart from the high efficiency of anti-icing/de-icing ability, SEHC exhibited excellent electric heating properties, including timely response, repeatability, and reliability towards coating damage. In addition, the synthetic strategy of combined SEHC with super-hydrophobic coating demonstrates more efficient anti-icing/de-icing property. Thus the SEHC concept provides a potential application of anti-icing/de-icing for the miniature complex components, due to its advances in fabricating convenience, damage resistance as well as anti-icing/de-icing functions.