Research on the influence of the piezoelectric ceramics layout on de-icing effect

The piezoelectric de-icing method is studied by simulation and experiment on a composite plate. The effect of piezoelectric ceramic layout (number, spacing) on the de-icing effect under the same energy consumption is studied by finite element simulation. The de-icing experiments are done under cold environment condition. The results show that when the piezoelectric ceramics with larger dimension are divided into smaller pieces according to a certain layout, the de-icing effect becomes better than that with large size single piezoelectric ceramic. As the spacing of the piezoelectric ceramics decreases, the deicing effect is further enhanced. The experimental results show that the de-icing time can be greatly shortened by increasing the input power of actuators. After dividing the large piezoelectric ceramics into four smaller ones, the de-icing effect is enhanced with the same energy consumption. The de-icing time is further shortened after the spacing of the piezoelectric ceramics is reduced.