A light lithium niobate transducer design and ultrasonic de-icing research for aircraft wing

Due to the strong piezoelectric effect possessed by lithium niobate and the fact that the adhesive bond of ice–substrate interface is relatively weak in shear, an ultrasonic de-icing technique that uses lithium niobate to design a light transducer for aircraft wing de-icing is proposed in this paper. The main contents of this paper are as follows: Firstly, a light de-icing lithium niobate transducer is designed to affix on the inner surface of the leading edge at the locations, where highest amount of ice accretion on the outer surface occurs. Secondly, the outdoor wing de-icing experiments are conducted to determine the optimal ultrasonic de-icing frequency. Finally, the design scheme of light-weight supersonic generator installed in the aircraft is presented. Research results show that this de-icing technique for aircraft wing de-icing is feasible, promising for further investigation. - Highlights: • A light lithium niobate transducer for aircraft wing de-icing is designed. • Theory and experiment show that ulreasonic de-icing for aircraft wing is feasible. • The optimum frequency of aircraft wing ultrasonic de-icing is given. • Lightweight design scheme of supersonic generator installed in aircraft is given