Ice formation and accretion present serious, sometimes catastrophic, safety issues in industrial applications where the use of composite components has already become common e.g. wind turbine blades, aircrafts, UAVs, but also in the case of electric and telecommunication infrastructure as well as other composite and metal constructions exposed to supercooled water droplets both on the ground and in the air. The project aims to develop waterborne polyurethane coatings using different methods to fulfil requirements of icephobicity. Applying an innovative approach to simulation and modelling should make it possible to design and fabricate icephobic surfaces with improved functionalities. This knowledge would give a better understanding of the ice accretion process on different coatings and modified surfaces. This is expected to provide the ability to develop durable and effective surfaces with icephobic features sufficiently reducing water and ice adhesion as well as slowing down ice nucleation, so that supercooled water droplets landing on the surface can be removed before freezing. The proposed developments will constitute a good alternative for presently used electro-thermal active systems to reduce or eliminate necessity for electric power consumption in order to achieve the de-icing effect. Taking into consideration future application in industrial environments all methods will meet demands regarding economy, environmentally friendly practices and be feasible to use on large industrial scale.

TECHNOLOGY PARTNERS is the Project Coordinator. It is the leader of the “Coatings fabrication and testing” Work Package, responsible for synthesis, distribution of chemical additives and nano particles in waterborne PU, as well as preparation of samples for characterization, basic characterisation of coatings and icephobicity, as well as durability tests. It also leads the “Laser surface modifications” Work Package being in charge of laser parameters selection and laser treatment of modified polyurethanes. It is also the leader of the Work Package “Modelling of droplet-surface interface in different conditions”, leading the construction of representable geometric models, modelling using density-functional-theory (DFT) and microscale modelling. It is responsible for design and synthesis of modified liquid additives and for compatibility testing of the additives in waterborne polyurethane. TECHNOLOGY PARTNERS will support the preparation of anti-icing prototype specimens, the demonstration of anti-icing technology in operationally relevant environment and the evaluation of anti-icing performance on UAV.