Piezo-actuated vibratory deicing of a flat plate

Accumulation of ice on aircraft wings is a cause of serious concern. The present work is a proof-of-concept study using piezoceramic actuators to induce vibration in a host structure such that the induced out-of-plane shear stresses can shear-off the ice. It is shown experimentally that vibratory deicing is successful at those resonance frequencies at which the peak values of the out-of-plane shear stresses are greater than the adhesive shear strength values of ice on an aluminum surface. Numerical simulations support the experimental observations. Snapshots of the video recordings of the deicing experiment are presented.