• Environmental and Applied Fluid Dynamics

    To address revolutionary environmental and industrial challenges
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H2020 CHOPIN: Coatings with hydrophobic and/or omniphobic properties against insect contamination

CHOPIN

The objective of the CHOPIN project is to develop coatings with hydrophobic and/or omniphobic properties against insect contamination. Different technologies are being considered in the project to obtain hydrophobic surfaces : wet-chemistry deposition (Sol-gel, Ionogel, UV-Varnish) and dry technologies (Ion Implantation and Dry Spray). These are sustainable solutions reducing CO2 emission.

Overview on the project and information on the techniques.

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 objectives of the project CHOPIN are :

  • 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.

Up-front the test under real conditions, wind tunnel tests will be performed at the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics to demonstrate the insect contamination and cleaning behaviour of the best coatings. The von Karman Instititute CWT-1 facility is used for testing the best three coatings developed for the CHOPIN project under simulated conditions. These coatings are tested on two different substrates (stainless steel 304 and micro perforated titanium) in terms of  anti-sticking and cleanability properties. The best coating is selected based on the results obtained from these tests, and used for further validation.

Project information

Project duration: 1 March 2018 - 28 February 2021

EU grant: € 1 529 893,75

Project Coordinator: Materia Nova

Partners: Berthier Etudes, France; Fundacion CIDETEC, Spain; NORUT Northern Research Institute, Norway; NORCE Norwegian Research Center, Norway; von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, Belgium

Topic Management: Airbus

 

Partners in the CHOPIN project

 

EU FlagThis project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program under Grant Agreement no. 785484.

Faculty - EA

Jeroen van Beeck

Dean of the Faculty and Head of the Department and Professor

Delphine Laboureur

Associate Professor

Miguel Mendez

Associate Professor

Wim Munters

Assistant Professor

Christophe Schram

Professor

Stefano Discetti

Visiting professor from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid

 
Manolis Gavaises

Visiting professor from University of London

 
Riccardo Zamponi

Adjunct professor from TU Delft

 
KALE Baris (*)
SENEL Cem Berk (*)
TEMEL Orkun (*)

*Collaborative Post Doc

AHIZI Samuel
ATIKPO Pierette (*)
AVIROVIC Matija (*)
CARLESI Tommaso
DI DOMENICO Valerio
DIERICKX Anouk
ENACHE Adriana
FOLOPPE Benoît (ARE)
GALLO Erica (*)
GILLYNS Emmanuel (*)
GLABEKE Gert-Jan
GONÇALVES Rui Pedro
IVANOVA Tsvetelina
LAURIKS Tom (*)
MANCINI Francesco
MARQUES Pedro
MONTEIRO Francisco
PALATOS-PLEXIDAS Alexandros
POLETTI Romain
RANDINO Sebastiano
RATZ Manuel
RICO ORERO Joan (*)
RIGUTTO Damien
SANAPO Carlo
SCHENA Lorenzo
SOOS Balint
VALLISA Lorenzo
VAN DEN BERGHE Jan
VEMURI Adithya
ZINGALE Nicholas Benedetto
ZUCCHELLI Umberto (*)

*Collaborative PhD

CAKTU ÖZEN Yasemin
DARTEVELLE Joran
DE MARIA Tommaso
DE SIO Giacomo
JACQUET Charles
LECOMTE Yannick
MAJOR Bertalan
STANDAERT Matias
YILMAZ Oguzhan