de-icing
De-icing is an alternative to applying icephobic coating or using icephobic surfaces. De-icing techniques are devices or material functions that, when triggered, destroy, release, or melt already formed ice on a surface. These devices are most common in aircrafts and NASA equipment as their technology has existed for quite some time and their installation into certain objects is not overly complicated. However, they are much more complex than simply an icephobic surface or coating and require significantly more pre-exsisting infrastructure.
De-icing techniques in aviation primarily use repulsive forces, often with magnetic fields, that utilize conductors and vibrate the surface of the vehicle, breaking and expelling any layers of ice that may have developed. Using repelling magnetic fields, the conductors are pushed together to create a magnetic field force that travels through the conductor attached to the surface, the high acceleration breaking the ice bonds. In most planes, this happens at least once per minute at high altitude.
in aviation
Other, less prominent, de-icing techniques include a graphite based healing system and the use of shape memory alloys. The graphite based healing systems entail graphite embedded in the exterior surface of the vehicle that is disbond ice. The graphite can be heated in patches, disbanding sections of ice without melting the ice and causing unnecessary liquid. Tested by NASA, this system, including its own alternator, only weighed 20 kg. Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) materials can transform shape when heated or a proper amount of energy is delivered. With SMAs, there is potential to make external surfaces out of SMAs on vehicles, applying heat as a de-icing technique which would physically manipulate the shape of the material, removing ice through surface bending, pealing, or quick movement. In addition to these methods, some less common and older methods of de-icing include de-icing fluids (glycol fluids in particular) and thermal anti-icing systems (applying heat to key aircraft components).
