Accession Number:

ADA289372

Title:

Application of Microwave Energy for Disbonding Ice from Runways.

Descriptive Note:

Final rept. 1 Oct 92-1 Sep 93,

Corporate Author:

RESEARCH ASSOCIATES OF SYRACUSE INC NY

Personal Author(s):

• Lothes, R. N.
• Monson, J. A.
• O'Shea, D. J.

Report Date:

1993-11-01

Pagination or Media Count:

47.0

Abstract:

The purpose of the program was to disbond ice from runway surfaces as an alternative to the use of chemicals for melting the ice. The concept depends on microwave energy to heat the runway surface sufficiently to create a thin melt zone at the ice pavement interface thereby disrupting the bond that makes mechanical clearing of ice so difficult. Complete melting of an ice layer, even if only a few millimeters thick, would be prohibitively expensive. The hope was that disbonding could be accomplished by melting such a thin layer that the microwave technique would prove affordable, and that the cost would be offset by avoidance of the deleterious effects of chemical melting.

Descriptors:

• *MICROWAVES
• *ICE
• *MELTING
• *RUNWAYS
• MECHANICAL PROPERTIES
• CHEMICALS
• INTERFACES
• LAYERS
• ENERGY
• MELTS
• PAVEMENTS
• COSTS
• SURFACES
• THINNESS
• HEAT
• AVOIDANCE
• CLEARANCES

Subject Categories:

• Physical Chemistry
• Terminal Flight Facilities
• Thermodynamics
• Radiofrequency Wave Propagation

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE