Low-energy defrosting technique set to reduce flight delays

During harsh winters, buildup of ice on aircraft wings can cause lengthy delays. Current defrosting systems work by melting all of the ice from the top layer down, which wastes energy and can take a long time. Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and Kyushu University in Japan have now developed a system which takes a different approach, is far more energy-efficient and faster in removing the ice.

The rationale is simple and borrows from the natural movement of glaciers: if the ice directly in contact with the surface is melted, the rest of the ice will simply slide off. Explaining the defrosting system in Applied Physics Letters, Nenad Miljkovic of UIUC and colleagues note that much of the energy pumped into conventional deicing goes into heating other components of the system rather than melting the ice. “The systems must be shut down, the working fluid is heated up, then it needs to be cooled down again,” Miljkovic said. “This eats up a lot of energy when you think of the yearly operational costs of running intermittent defrosting cycles.”