Grant: Engage Grants Program

Transparent Windshields for various vehicles, such as cars, rail vehicles including trains, streetcars, and locomotives,*snowmobiles, airplanes, helicopters and sea vessels, must be deiced or defrosted using available on-board power. Typically,*deicing and defrosting are accomplished by blowing air heated by the vehicle's engine onto the windshield. However, especially*since the engine is initially cold upon startup, deicing/defrosting takes a considerable amount of time with unnecessary emission of*greenhouse gases to the environment. Pulse-electro thermal deicing (PETD) is a technology that can solve this problem. It uses a*high density of heating power (W/m2) using proprietary pulse and frequency, which allows for rapid and energy-efficient deicing.*The pulse and frequency are calibrated based on a number of factors such as temperature, type of ice growth, etc., and melt a thin*interfacial layer (~50 microns) of ice rapidly and energy efficiently. This detaches the ice, without having to expend the time and*energy to melt all the ice. It is the purpose of this project to develop, test and validate the use of PETD technology for automotive*windshield defrosting/deicing. The successful validation of this technology in the above mentioned applications will have*tremendous effect on energy saving as well as the reduction of greenhouse gas emission to the environment.*.*Ontario