The aircraft industry has long been concerned with the increase of drag impacting directly the fuel consumption of airplanes. Different researches have shown that the insect sticking causes 3-D disturbances in the laminar flow. The use of coatings to mitigate the insect contamination is really promising. Critical issues remain though due to lack of durability.
The development of highly durable hydrophobic coatings which can be applied to micro-perforated surfaces typically used for drag reduction and ;The validation of the technology and the coating process by using tests to clearly assess the mitigation of insect contamination under realistic conditions.
Different technologies are being considered in the project to obtain hydrophobic surfaces : wet-chemistry deposition and dry technologies (plasma and spray).
The application process needs to keep the holes and the efficiency of the HLFC leading edges.
The insect contamination and cleaning behaviour of the best coatings will be demonstrated during simulation testing and under realistic conditions.
Tests under real conditions will be done by using drones which will evaluate statistically the insect impact and contamination behaviour of typical A/C leading edges under realistic A/C environment during take-off, landing and flight.
The GENERAL PRESENTATION of the project can be downloaded HERE.