A study of dynamic cratering effects in thin anti-icing films

摘要

This paper reports on a study of cratering effects in thin anti-icint films designed to protect aircraft surfaces from snow and ice accumulation while the aircraft is on the ground awaiting take-off. These fluids primarily consist of a gloycol used as a freezing point depressant, water, and to a small extent, tickening and wetting agents. Craters formed in these films represent local areas where the film thickness is dramatically reduced and can lead to premature failure of the film. This phenomenon was found to be driven by surface tension gradients at the fims surface which cause surface movement and drag the ujderlying fluid. These surface tension gradients are formed because the surfactants being used in the anti-icing fluids are more effective in water-rich solutions than in glycol-rich solutions. Experimental results are given which illustrate this behavior of the surfactant and numerical work is presented to show that the magnitude of surface tension differences obtained is adequate to drive the phenomenon.