How to treat the surface of an object well is already being studied. However, transportation such as airplanes can make the aircraft dangerous because raindrops on the cold gas instantly turn into ice. To overcome this situation, the MIT research team discovered a method of treating the surface of water.
The appearance of water droplets colliding gives a feeling similar to exploding a water balloon hitting the face. The dropped water droplets are enlarged by the impact and the water droplets greatly increase the surface contact area. This characteristic accelerates the freezing process that occurs on the aircraft wing. In addition, when spray from the sea attaches to structures and evaporates rapidly, salts that corrode metals may accumulate on the surface, which may cause problems depending on the location.
The new surface treatment method discovered by the MIT research team is based on research and development six years ago. A ridge-like ridge that is small enough to be seen by the eye is formed on the surface, and the dropped water droplets are divided into left and right symmetry by the reaction of the impact hitting the surface. It also has the property of increasing the speed when it pops out from the surface. Therefore, the time the water droplets contact the surface is reduced by 40%. In other words, it can help reduce the time it takes for raindrops on aircraft to freeze.
The team formed complex structures such as bowl-shaped rings on the surface of the object. Water droplets falling into this ring structure are transported upwards and the diffusion range is minimized. When the water drop hits the annular structure, it spreads first, but the limit of the water drop is up to the boundary of the bowl. As a result, the water droplet recoils upward and eventually falls off the surface. Minimizes interaction with the purified structure-treated surface.
This depends on the size of the structure that splashes the water droplets and the size of the water droplets that create the impact, but if all the water droplets do not return immediately, overall improvement can be expected.
The research could not only reduce ice formation in aircraft and large wind turbines, but could also benefit clothing made of waterproof fabrics, which have a large market for handling hydrophobic materials. The circulating structure has the potential to increase the breathability of the fabric used in waterproof clothing with many fine holes as well as the metal that wraps around the aircraft’s aircraft. Related information can be found here .