Residents of 麻豆精选 and the Okanagan are no strangers to icy windshield problems.
UBC Okanagan engineers aim to ease winter frustration with a new surface coating that can shed ice from large areas using little effort.
The new anti-ice coating is a new class of surfaces called low interfacial toughness (LIT) materials and were developed by UBC Okanagan researchers in a new study.
鈥淔or those experienced in the early morning windshield scrape, it should come as no surprise that it normally takes quite a lot of force to remove large areas of ice,鈥� said Kevin Golovin, assistant professor at the UBCO School of Engineering and study lead author.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 not the case with LIT materials. Imagine simply brushing the ice away or letting it sliding off the windshield from its own weight鈥攖hat鈥檚 how effective LIT materials can be.鈥�
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According to Golovin, the development of this new class of materials is changing the way scientists understand ice adhesion.
鈥淲e鈥檙e disproving the last 80 years of thinking about how to lower ice adhesion. Lowering toughness had never been explored as an effective de-icing strategy.鈥�
Golovin said LIT materials work by causing cracks to form easily beneath the ice, allowing it to readily dislodge. He compares the effect to a string of dominoes.
鈥淚f designed correctly, the force to knock down a single domino is enough to topple them all鈥攁dding more dominoes doesn鈥檛 require you to push any harder,鈥� says Golovin. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the same with LIT materials. Once you form a crack it can de-ice the entire interface, whether it鈥檚 the length of a windshield, an airplane wing or a turbine blade.鈥�
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LIT materials can be fabricated from commonplace paints and plastics but possess superior performance against state-of-the-art anti-icing materials in different applications like the de-icing of power lines, aviation wings and even in complex shapes like ice cube trays.
鈥淚ce buildup has adverse effects on a range of commercial and residential activities, from downed power lines to air travel delays to scraping one鈥檚 windshield,鈥� said Golovin.
鈥淭his development is definitely a game-changer.鈥�
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