Innovative Rotor Blade Anti-Icing/De-Icing Technologies

FBS, Inc. and the Penn State Rotorcraft Center propose the development of a novel ultrasonic guided wave phased array focusing technology for large area anti-icing and/or de-icing of rotor blade structures from a single sensing position. The concept is unique in that it utilizes a phased array actuation approach for ice prevention/removal. The Penn State Rotorcraft Center has recently shown the ability to use ultrasonic guided waves to de-ice aluminum, steel, and composite plate structures. Penn State’s single actuator approach is only capable of localized de-icing which makes field implementation impractical because hundreds of actuators would be needed to de-ice an entire rotor blade. The phased array approach proposed here will allow large area de-icing by using an array of actuators and phasing them to constructively focus energy to a particular point on the surface of the structure (anti-icing) or the structure/ice interface (de-icing) while using high actuation frequencies that will not harm the structure. The focal point could then be scanned, using software, to focus energy to all points on the rotor blade to remove ice or prevent ice formation over a large area from a single actuating position.