Descripción del proyecto
Investigación de fenómenos de mesoescala para diseñar superficies heladas avanzadas
El proyecto INTICE, financiado por el Consejo Europeo de Investigación, tiene como objetivo comprender mejor y contrarrestar la formación de hielo en las superficies explorando los fenómenos de mesoescala que influyen en el comportamiento del agua en las superficies. El objetivo es crear una nueva clase de superficies intrínsecamente helofóbicas cuya composición y textura impidan la nucleación del hielo y reduzcan su adherencia. Al investigar el efecto de la curvatura de la textura superficial en la nucleación del hielo, el confinamiento del líquido en la depresión del punto de congelación y las características de la textura en la termofluídica interfacial, los investigadores pretenden desarrollar superficies de alto rendimiento para diversas aplicaciones. La investigación propuesta tiene implicaciones para la caracterización de los fenómenos de cambio de fase a mesoescala y para el avance de los sistemas multifásicos de transferencia de calor y masa.
Objetivo
Icing of surfaces is common in nature and technology, affecting everyday life and often causing catastrophic events. Despite progress in recent years in the area of hydrophobicity, engineered surfaces that can be employed in applications based on their intrinsic icephobicity, going beyond classical additional chemical coatings or heating treatments, are not a reality. Understanding and counteracting surface icing brings with it significant scientific challenges, which form an intersection of nucleation thermodynamics, interfacial thermofluidics and surface nanoengineering/science. This project will investigate important mesoscale phenomena (a term used here to summarily describe phenomena manifesting themselves in the spatial range from the order of a nanometer to a hundred microns), which affect the behavior of water on surfaces with respect to icing. With the resulting, unifying knowledge base, the aim is to identify pathways for the design and fabrication of a new class of intrinsically icephobic surfaces, based on their a-priori engineered composition and texture. Our aim is to identify anti-nucleation and anti-wetting phenomena, leading to surfaces having long ice nucleation time scales, low water contact and retention, and low ice adhesion. The effects of surface texture curvature on ice nucleation, local liquid confinement on freezing point depression, and mesoscale texture features on interfacial thermofluidics, have intertwined and sometimes counteracting impacts on surface icing behavior, which we aim at unraveling, to determine pathways to high performance surfaces. Connected to all this is the employment of advanced surface texture fabrication and methods to perform the necessary experiments, lending consideration to the development of such surfaces for future applications. Beyond icephobicity, this research has clear implications to the characterization of mesoscale phase change phenomena, for multiphase heat and mass transfer processes and devices.
Ámbito científico
Programa(s)
Régimen de financiación
ERC-ADG - Advanced GrantInstitución de acogida
8092 Zuerich
Suiza