Utilizing swelling force to decrease the ice adhesion strength

The phase transformation that occurs during water freezing process is accompanied by volume expansion and the release of latent heat. The swelling force generated by this phase transformation can have a harmful impact on structural safety and integrity, as it can lead to bursting in roads, water pipes and reservoir dams. So, why not effectively adopt the swelling force as the active de-icing power to diminish the stability of the contact interface. This paper proposes a new method to remove this accumulated ice by using polymethyl methacrylate (pmma) and 6061 aluminum alloy with pits as substrate materials. Pits were filled with solutions of different freezing points; owing to the different freezing point between the pit solution and water, their phase transformations occurred at different time, where the solutions in the pit would freeze more slowly than the surface water. The generated phase swelling force directly acted on the contact interface and decreased the stability of the interface to decrease the ice adhesion strength. The experimental results showed that the ice adhesion strength was obviously affected and reduced by the swelling force in contrast to the ice adhesion strength on the smooth sample, and the reduction in ice adhesion strength changed depending on the filling solution. Compared to the ice adhesion strength of the specimen without pits, the frozen ice was completely separated from the ice-pmma interface owing to the water filling the pit. The ice adhesion strength on the surface of the aluminum alloy sample filled with 10% ethanol solution was reduced by 81.42%. Utilizing the phase swelling force to reduce the adhesion strength enhances the active de-icing ability of the material, providing a novel method for developing new anti-icing methods.