Investigating Shear Stress of Ice Accumulated on Surfaces with Various Roughnesses: Effects of a Quasi-Water Layer

The investigation of the anti-icing/deicing is essential because the icing phenomenon deteriorates the natural environment and various projects. By conducting molecular dynamics simulation, this work analyzes the effect of the quasi-water layer on the ice shear stress over smooth and rough surfaces, along with the underlying physics of the quasi-water layer. The results indicate that the thickness of the quasi-water layer monotonically increases with temperature, resulting in a monotonic decrease in the ice shear stress on the smooth surface. Due to the joint effects of the smooth surface wettability and the quasi-water layer, the ice shear stress increases and then decreases to almost a constant value when the surface changes from a hydrophobic to a hydrophilic one. For rough surfaces with stripe nanostructures, when the width of the bump for one case equals the depression for the other case, the variations of shear stress with height for these two cases are almost the same. The rough surface is effective in reducing the ice shear stress compared to the smooth surface due to the thickening of the quasi-water layer. Each molecule in the quasi-water layer and its four nearest neighboring molecules gradually form a tetrahedral ice-like structure along the direction away from the surface. The radial distribution function also shows that the quasi-water layer resembles the liquid water rather than the ice structure. These findings shed light on developing anti-icing and deicing techniques.