SANAD · Synthesis of Advanced top Nano-coatings with improved Aerodynamic and De-icing behavior

The efficiency of modern transportation is severely compromised by the prevalence of turbulent drag and icing. The high level of turbulent skin-friction occurring, e.g., on the surface of an aircraft, is responsible for excess fuel consumption and increased carbon emissions. The environmental, political, and economic pressure to improve fuel efficiency and reduce carbon emissions associated with transportation means that reducing turbulent skin-friction drag is a pressing engineering problem.The current project will tackle this problem with the development of superhydrophobic nanostructured top coatings, which do not only exhibit improved aerodynamic efficiency but at the same time they prevent icing on the aircraft. The nanostructured coatings will be based on metal oxides or nanostructured carbon (carbon nanotubes or graphene). Both types of nanoparticles can become superhydrophobic by suitable surface treatment while nanostructured carbon can also thermally activate the coating using the plane's on-board electrical system.The proposed project involves the synthesis and chemical modification of ad-hoc nanoparticles. The latter will be employed for the synthesis of novel composite coatings, based on epoxy or polyacrylic resins, which will be characterized to obtain information on the structure and topology of the coatings. Wind tunnel tests, in combination with fluid dynamics modeling, will be conducted to optimise the application methods and the effect of different substrates, icing fluids, contaminants etc., thus correlating the aerodynamic and de-icing behavior to the morphology of the material. The performance of the developed coatings will be compared with that of existing coatings already produced by a partner of the consortium. The material with the most promising characterization data will be produced in large-scale and provided to the partner “British Airways” for applying it as outer coating in three aircrafts for testing it in flight conditions.""