Insights into the interface during ice adhesion measurements

Evaluating published results from ice adhesion measurements to characterise the applicability of surface coatings, usually a large variation of the published properties and a high scattering of these values attracts attention. Moreover ice adhesion is known as a highly susceptible parameter regarding temperature treatment, what additionally contributes to deviations. This paper contributes to the evaluation of ice adhesion results to correlate the measurements with the surface characteristics. It proposes a novel instrumentalised method of a quasistatic ice adhesion test to receive additional information about force and displacement behaviour of adhered ice. Their evaluation reveals insights into nanoscopic processes in the interface during the adhesion process. Different modes of the adhesion process of ice, like clean breaks, sliding with almost no force, sliding with high forces, multiple breaks or multiple sticking, not only correlated to the material, but also to methodological test parameters, are discussed. The overlapping influence of surface characteristics and test parameters is pointed out.