Open Access

ARTICLE

Multi-Scale Superhydrophobic Anti-Icing Coating for Wind Turbine Blades

by Jiangyong Bao¹, Jianjun He^1,*, Biao Chen², Kaijun Yang¹, Jun Jie², Ruifeng Wang¹, Shihao Zhang²

1 School of Energy and Power Engineering, Changsha University of Science and Technology, Changsha, 410114, China
2 Guodian Longyuan Jiangyong Wind Power Co., Ltd., Changsha, 410000, China

* Corresponding Author: Jianjun He. Email:

Energy Engineering 2021, 118(4), 947-959. https://doi.org/10.32604/EE.2021.014535

Received 07 October 2020; Accepted 31 December 2020; Issue published 31 May 2021

Abstract

As a surface functional material, super-hydrophobic coating has great application potential in wind turbine blade anti-icing, self-cleaning and drag reduction. In this study, ZnO and SiO₂ multi-scale superhydrophobic coatings with mechanical flexibility were prepared by embedding modified ZnO and SiO₂ nanoparticles in PDMS. The prepared coating has a higher static water contact angle (CA is 153°) and a lower rolling angle (SA is 3.3°), showing excellent super-hydrophobicity. Because of its excellent superhydrophobic ability and micro-nano structure, the coating has good anti-icing ability. Under the conditions of −10°C and 60% relative humidity, the coating can delay the freezing time by 1511S, which is 10.7 times slower than the normal freezing time. More importantly, due to the mechanical properties provided by SiO₂ and the synergistic effect of micro-nano particles, the coating has excellent mechanical durability. After 10 wear tests, the contact angle of the coating is still as high as 141° and the rolling angle is 6.8°. This research provides a theoretical reference for the preparation of a mechanically stable coating with a simple preparation process, as well as a basic research on the anti-icing behavior of the coating.

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