A scale model of the team’s anti-frosting technology applied to a small sheet of untreated aluminum. Elevated micro-fins of sacrificial ice allow the remainder of the surface area to stay dry and frost free.
Nothing foretells the coming of winter like frost on windshields.
While the inconvenience of scraping or defrosting car windows may define cold mornings for many drivers, the toll frost takes on the larger economy is more than just a nuisance. From delayed flights to power outages, ice buildup can cost consumers and companies billions of dollars every year in lost efficiency and mechanical breakdown.
New research from Virginia Tech, published this week in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, hopes to change that. With the world’s first demonstration of a passive anti-frosting surface, the study provides a proof of concept for keeping surfaces 90 percent dry and frost free indefinitely – all without any chemicals or energy inputs.
“Frosting is a big issue, and researchers have been working to solve this problem for years,” said Farzad Ahmadi, a doctoral student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics in the College of Engineering and the study’s lead author.
Ahmadi explained that traditional approaches to fighting frost have relied on the application of antifreeze chemicals or energy inputs, like heat. Even the age-old method of throwing salt down on roadways is essentially a chemical treatment. Other recent advances include special coatings for surfaces that prevent frost formation, but these coatings aren’t durable and tend to wear off easily.
“For this project, we’re not using any kind of special coating, chemicals, or energy to overcome frost,” said Ahmadi. “Instead we’re using the unique chemistry of ice itself to prevent frost from forming.”
Using a simple approach to design, the researchers created their anti-frosting surface on untreated aluminum by patterning ice stripes onto a microscopic array of elevated grooves. The microscopic grooves act as sacrificial areas, where stripes of intentional ice form and create low pressure zones. These low-pressure areas pull nearby moisture from the air onto the nearest ice stripe, keeping the overlapping intermediate areas free of frost, even in humid, sub-freezing conditions.
These sacrificial ice stripes make up only 10 percent of the material’s surface area, leaving the remaining 90 percent completely dry.
“The real power of this concept is that the ice stripes themselves are the chemistry, which means the material we use is irrelevant,” said Jonathan Boreyko, an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics. “As long as you have that proper pattern of sacrificial ice, the material you use could be virtually anything. So there are a lot of possibilities.”
The researchers see immediate applications for the technology in the HVAC industry, where the outdoor components of heat exchangers (like heat pumps and fan systems) already utilize a pattern of micro-fins on their surfaces. Manufacturers would just need to apply the right pattern of grooves on those fins to keep frost from building up inside the systems.
Other applications include aerospace materials, like airplane wings. And yes, with a little more development, car windshields are also an option for the anti-frosting technology, which has already been granted a full patent.
In addition to its unprecedented anti-frosting qualities, the technology could carry additional benefits: It may help to offset traditional methods of fighting ice that carry troubling implications for the environment. For example, it takes thousands of gallons of antifreeze chemicals to defrost the wings of one airplane for a single flight. Those chemicals run off into groundwater, get dispersed into the air as tiny droplets, and may have lasting effects on vegetation and wildlife – even people.
“The good thing about ice is that it’s environmentally friendly,” said Ahmadi. “It’s not like other chemicals or even salt, which not only stick around but also get diluted or watered down over time.”
Boreyko said one of the study’s most important contributions was the development of a rational model for how much chemical (in this case, the chemical is ice) to apply in order to keep a surface dry.
“We’ve known the trick for centuries,” he said. “You put down a low-pressure chemical, like salt, and it keeps everything else around it pretty dry. But now we’re making that effect everlasting, and we’re making its distribution rational.”
Learn more: World’s first passive anti-frosting surface fights ice with ice
The Latest on: Anti-frosting
via Google News
The Latest on: Anti-frosting
- Rice University: Water can’t touch this sanded, powdered surfaceon August 4, 2022 at 10:46 pm
Want a surface that won’t get wet? Grab some sandpaper. Rice University researchers have developed a simple method to make surfaces superhydrophobic — that is, very water-repellant — without the ...
- Water can't touch this sanded, powdered surfaceon August 4, 2022 at 9:39 am
Want a surface that won't get wet? Grab some sandpaper. Rice University researchers have developed a simple method to make surfaces superhydrophobic—that is, very water-repellant—without the chemicals ...
- NICE Actimize Recognized with 2022 Frost & Sullivan Product Leadership Award for North America Enterprise Fraud Managementon August 4, 2022 at 5:02 am
NICE Actimize, aNICE(Nasdaq: NICE) business, has been recognized with the 2022 Frost & Sullivan Product Leadership Award for North America Enterprise Fraud Management. To determine the Product ...
- Anti-Green Politicians Tipped for Top Roles in Truss Governmenton August 4, 2022 at 2:24 am
MPs with a history of casting doubt on climate science and opposing green policies are poised for cabinet positions under Tory leadership favourite Liz Truss, prompting fears over the UK’s climate ...
- Cannes 2021 title ‘Neptune Frost’ picked up for UK-Ireland release (exclusive)on August 3, 2022 at 5:54 am
Kino Lorber acquired rights for the rest of the world in December 2021 and recently released the film theatrically in the US. Actor Ezra Miller and theatre producer Stephen Hendel are among Neptune ...
- EASA rules out mandate for frozen-contamination cockpit alertson August 3, 2022 at 5:15 am
Europe's air transport safety regulator is ruling out a certification mandate to fit aircraft with systems capable of detecting and alerting pilots to frozen contaminants on critical aerodynamic ...
- Variable-Diameter Air Ring Cools Film Above Frost Lineon July 31, 2022 at 11:22 pm
Tower-mounted adjustable ring adds cooling so that blown film can run at optimum line speeds with structures having soft inner skin layers that tend to block.
- Is icing out the press the best strategy for the GOP?on July 31, 2022 at 10:45 am
As the identity of the GOP coalesces around the Arizona primaries, reporter Rachel Leingang talks to Brian Stelter about the anti-media campaigns run by GOP candidates. "There's a big difference ...
- Global Anti-Icing Coating Market Size, Share to Bolster At 13.9% CAGR Through 2026 - Industry Analysison July 21, 2022 at 10:11 pm
Jul 22, 2022 (Market Insight Reports) -- The report Anti-Icing Coating Market Size and Analysis maintains enhanced dynamics and is overshadowed by a top player across the globe. The research ...
via Bing News