Surface Morphology Investigations of Suspension Plasma Sprayed Zirconia Coatings

Wednesday, May 13, 2015: 1:20 PM
Room 101B (Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center)
Dr. Nicolaie Markocsan , University West, Trollhättan, Sweden
Prof. Per Nylen , University West, Trollhättan, Sweden
Mrs. laetitia keirsse , University West, Trollhättan, Sweden
Ice adhesion on different devices that are in a cold climate may cause serious damages.
New technical solutions to design more attractive ice repellent surfaces, than de-icing products already used, have been intensively studied in the last years.
In this study main focus was on Suspension Plasma Sprayed Zirconia Coatings based on the hypothesis that superhydrophobic materials will also have weak ice-adhesion properties.

Thereby a spraying experimental work was organised and various tests performed to confirm or find new correlations between different samples/spray conditions and surface  parameters.
Measurements of surface roughness of different samples as well as contact angle and Surface free energy measurements have been carried out.
This experiments showed that a surface morphology with tightened and high density peeks have good superhydrophobic properties and therefore low ice adhesion.
These results have been further correlated with the results of dynamic contact angle and ice adhesion measurements showing similar trends.