Surviving ice: the next generation anti-icing strategies and materials 

This village will not be run spring semester 2023. 

Icing is inevitable in cold conditions. The group of students in this village will work on strategies and materials to live with unwanted ice and snow.  Unwanted formation of ice can be hazardous. From blockage of frozen cabinets in refrigerators to damages of key components in airplanes, the safety issues raised by icing are still awaiting effective solutions. 

Anti-icing technologies are currently at the crossroad of the traditional active methods and the next generation passive approaches. The overwhelmingly adopted traditional active anti-icing methods today, including thermal heating, mechanical de-icing and using chemicals, are either energy intensive or environmentally harmful. In contrast, the next generation passive anti-icing strategies, especially those enable ice self-removal, are aimed to be highly sustainable and eco-friendly, which are still under development and not available for large-scale applications yet. As such, innovation in design and practise of smart anti-icing approaches by combing the advantages of both active and passive anti-icing methods holds the key currently for addressing the unwanted icing problem and applications on ice and snow.

Relevant competency

The study groups in the village can choose topics related to icing by interest. Basic knowledge about icing, snow and water interactions with different materials will be highly helpful. 

About the village 

Anti-icing is required at many places in cold conditions. In certain cases such as aircraft in winter, maintaining an ice-clean state is critical for safety (video in the bottom). The nowadays active methods and the future passive anti-icing approaches will be put together in this village for the formulation of practical anti-icing strategies and materials for addressing the typical anti-icing requirements in different aspects of society in Norway and abroad. Furthermore, possibilities of adapting anti-icing technologies in sports in ice and snow will be investigated. Theoretical and practical tasks in the follow categories can be taken by the study groups: 
•    Icing prediction
•    Icing prevention
•    Ice removal 
•    Ice/snow friction
•    Icing risk/cost evaluation  
•    Other possible topics related to icing and snow