Research progress of anti-icing/deicing technologies for polar ships and offshore platforms

The polar regions present adverse circumstances of high humidity and strong air-sea exchange. As such, the surfaces of ships and platforms (oil exploiting and drilling platforms) serving in polar regions can easily be frozen by ice accretion, which not only affects the operation of the equipment but also threatens safety. This paper summarizes the status of the anti-icing/deicing technologies of both China and abroad for polar ships and offshore platforms, and introduces the various effects of ice accretion on polar ships and offshore platforms, and the resulting safety impacts. It then reviews existing anti-icing/deicing technologies and methods of both China and abroad, including such active deicing methods as electric heating, infrared heating and ultrasonic guided wave deicing, as well as such passive deicing methods as super hydrophobic coating, sacrificial coating, aqueous lubricating layer coating and low cross-link density (with interfacial slippage) coating, summarizes their applicability to polar ships and offshore platforms, and finally discusses their advantages/disadvantages.