EVALUATION OF ADHESION, HYDROPHOBICITY OF NANOPARTICLE EMBEDDED POLYURETHANE TOPCOAT FOR AIRCRAFT ANTI-ICING WITH THREE DIFFERENT NANOPARTICLES

Abstract

In the aircraft industry, anti- and de-icing are one of very important techniques for the safety. The anti-icing technique had not been studied intensively while de-icing technique had been not only researched enough but applied to aircraft industry. In this work, surface roughness and energies of polyurethane (PU) topcoat were controlled with three different nanoparticles which was coated to PU topcoat uniformly. Static contact angle (CA) using distilled water was evaluated to measure hydrophobicity. The adhesion property of three different nanoparticles was also evaluated directly using adhesion pull-off test. The color gamut of nanoparticle coated PU topcoat was measured for the color change on the aircraft surface with three different nanoparticles. It was determined using RGB color degree variation between neat PU topcoat and coated nanoparticle. Finally, the optimized parameters of nanoparticle coating was determined to manufacture hydrophobic surface and to maintain color of neat PU topcoat for the aircraft. Significant delay of starting icing was observed for a nanoparticle coated case in the temperature controlling chamber (in the range of - 30 to 50 Celsius). The direct adhesion force was also measured and compared for the different nanoparticles. The following study will be the durability of anti-icing by measuring of the adhesion and hydrophobicity under severe circumstance. Copyright 2021. Used by CAMX ? The Composites and Advanced Materials Expo