Understanding the Principles of Solid Shedding Surfaces - Phase III
Abstract
Built infrastructure is impacted by a multitude of environmental factors including sunlight, rain, dirt, soot, bird droppings, treesap, mold, and mildew. Coatings can provide a protective function, developing coatings that can resist the adhesion and accumulation of specific contaminants can be challenging and coatings that can simultaneously resist a variety of contaminants have yet to be realized. The U. S. Naval fleet is no exception and is especially impacted by two types of contaminants that impact efficient fleet operation and safety. Fouling of ship hulls increases drag, impairs ship operation, and increases fuel consumption. Even with the useof modern antifouling coatings, maintenance of ship hulls to keep them fouling-free consumes significant resources. Ice accumulation on antennas can impair their function and falling ice can be a danger to sailors. While approaches to ship hull coatings that do not use biocides and attempt to deter the adhesion of fouling organisms have been studied and commercial fouling-release coatings have been introduced, there is limited knowledge of the fundamental principles that can be employed in the design of surfaces that can resist the settlement and adhesion of the wide variety of fouling organisms found in the marine environment. Ice accumulation on antennas can impair their function and falling ice can be a danger to sailors. While approaches to ship hull coatings that do not use biocides and attempt to deter the adhesion of fouling organisms have been studied and commercial fouling-release coatings have been introduced, there is limited knowledge of the fundamental principles that can be employed in the design of surfaces that can resist the settlement and adhesion of the wide variety of fouling organisms found in the marine environment. Similarly, while many approaches to the design of coatings that resist the adhesion of ice have been studied, there is very limited knowledge regarding the underlying principles leading to the development of coatings that can effectively reduce and hopefully eliminate the ability of ice to adhere to these surfaces. In a program initiated in 2020, we set out to answer the question: What is the fundamental nature of surfaces that resist adhesion of biological adhesives and ice? In this program we will continue with this overall objective, broaden our approaches and methods for studying adhesion of ice and fouling organisms to surfaces, utilize our recently acquired surface characterization tools and further expand the exploration of new types of coating technologies that can resist ice and fouling adhesion. Coatings technologies identified in the previous phases of this program for ice-release will also be optimized and scaled up and tested ina variety of real-world conditions to understand their performance in the field as well as their durability in the environment.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jan 12, 2023
- Source ID
- N000142312114
Entities
People
- Dean C Webster
Organizations
- North Dakota State University
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy