Please consider attending the following: MATERIALS ENGINEERING SEMINAR "Durable Icephobic Coating for Aluminum Substrate" By Sathish Kumar Ranganathan Purdue MSE Ph.D. Final Exam Advisors: Professor Jeffrey P. Youngblood and Professor John A. Howarter ABSTRACT Development of durable icephobic coating and reduction of ice accumulation on the product surfaces has proven to be a challenging task in the past decade. To obtain a durable icephobic coating, Fluoro-Ethylene-Alkyl-Vinyl-Ether (FEVE) binder was selected and smooth and rough surface coating formulations were developed. Targeting overhead power transmission line application, FEVE binder-based coating formulations were validated at extreme thermal ageing conditions (200oC for 60 days) and have studied retention of icephobic performance. These coatings were also benchmarked with commercially available silicone-epoxy coating and superhydrophobic aerosol coating. FEVE based coatings had retained its surface characteristics and icephobic performance after aggressive thermal ageing as compare to commercial benchmark coatings. Further to map-out icephobic material design space and to create a scientific understanding, silicone-based coating materials were selected with varying material and surface characteristics such as water contact angle (hydrophilic, hydrophobic and superhydrophobic), surface roughness (3000 GS, 300 GS and 30 GS) and elastic modulus (8 psi to 280 psi). Experiment results suggest that hydrophobic silicone, low modulus coatings ice adhesion strength did not influence by roughness as compare to higher modulus silicone coatings. The critical modulus to obtain a low ice adhesion surface was identified as below 100 psi. Superhydrophobic coating has resulted in low ice adhesion strength across the coating modulus and roughness ranges. Additionally, these silicone coatings were further validated for ice accumulation weight increase using automated ice accumulation test set-up. Superhydrophobic coating has outperformed all other coatings with less ice weight accumulation, however the test sample placement angle against water spray direction significantly affects the ice accumulation test results. These results and learnings were used to establish durable icephobic coating material design space. Date: Wednesday, October 16, 2019 Time: 10:30 A.M. Place: RHPH 162