Effective de-icing skin using graphene-based flexible heater

Abstract

In this study, a thermal de-icing/anti-icing system for aircraft surfaces was designed using flexible graphene film/paper. It was placed between two Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic (CFRP) laminates. The flexible heater paper presents high mechanical and thermal properties and requires up to nine times less power than current known resistance heating pad thermal systems to achieve de-icing. The temperature of the surface was controlled by varying the power input. This allows the monitoring of de-icing time, which can be tuned in less than 10 min. The feasibility of the de-icing performance was demonstrated through a series of experiments and the results indicate that the developed method could be a very promising electrical heating strategy able to maintain lightness, efficiency in the de-icing performance and for reducing the environmental impact of de-icing realized through polluting fluids.