An Experimental Study to Evaluate the Droplet Impinging Erosion Characteristics of an Icephobic, Elastic Soft Surface 2019-01-1997

Elastic soft material/surface, such as Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), is a perspective, useful and low-cost hydrophobic and icephobic coating. While it has been reported to have good mechanical durability, its erosion durability under the high impacting of water droplets pertinent to aircraft inflight icing phenomena has not been explored. In this study, the droplet imping erosion characteristics of an icephobic PDMS surface/material is evaluated systematically upon the dynamic impinging of water droplets at different impact velocities (~ up to 75m/s), in comparison with other state-of-the-art icephobic materials/surfaces, such as superhydrophobic surface (SHS) and slippery liquid-infused porous surface (SLIPS). Surprisingly, the contact angle (CA) of the elastic PDMS is shown to have an over 20° increase (from 105° to 128°), which represents better hydrophobicity, after the erosion test which is mainly contributed to the higher roughness of the eroded PDMS surface. As for the icephobicity evaluation, intact PDMS was found to has ultra-low ice adhesion (~8 kPa), in comparison with SHS (i.e., ~100kPa) and SLIPS (i.e., ~35kPa). PDMS also shows outstandingly stable ice adhesion during the erosion test (i.e., fluctuation only within ~4kPa) as a result of the growth of cracks on the PDMS surface and the increased surface energy.