Effect of Ultrasonic Vibration on the Surface Adhesive Characteristic of Iced Aluminum Alloy Plate

Abstract

Icings on moving machinery, such as wind turbines and aircraft wings, degrade their performance and safety. Ultrasonic vibration is considered one of the deicing methods. In this research, simulations and experiments are carried out to explore the effect of ultrasonic vibration on the adhesive characteristic of ice on aluminum alloy plates. Harmonic response analyses are conducted to analyze the changing and distributions of shear stresses at the adhesive interface under different frequencies and sizes of PZT patches. The results show that there is optimum side length and thickness of the PZT patch, as the size of the iced aluminum alloy plate is constant. In these conditions, the shear stresses at the adhesive interface are high. Then, experiments on adhesive torque of ice are carried out to calculate the adhesive shear stresses of ice. The results show that the adhesive force of ice decreases under the excitation of ultrasonic vibration. When the excited frequency is 79 kHz, the adhesive torsional shear stress is 0.014 MPa, which is only 7% of the one with no ultrasonic vibration.