Runway Deicing Product Anti/Deicing Performance Assessment: Review and Future Directions

Every winter, northern airport operations are disrupted by heavy snowstorms and freezing precipitations. A simple snow accumulation or a thin layer of ice can affect aircraft operations (take-off, landing and taxi), and increase the risk for passengers and crew members, by rendering the runway slippery. Any deficits in deicing operations can also lead to flight delays and even cancellations that cost a lot to the industry. In order to maintain the runway and taxiway in a safe and useable condition, airport authorities use mechanical tools, but also chemical products. Chemical products available on the market for use in airports are principally in solid forms and liquid form, and are denominated as Runway Deicing Product (RDP). All of the products used in airport should meet the technical requirements of one of the two Aerospace Materials Specifications (AMS) documents: the AMS1431D Compound, Solid Runway and taxiway Deicing/Anti-icing and the AMS1435C Fluid, Generic, Deicing/Anti-icing Runways and Taxiways. Most of the products are used as freezing point depressants and are applied on snow, ice or packed snow covers to create holes and facilitate the mechanical removal. Over the past ten years, efforts have been brought along to adapt and to develop methods in order to assess the deicing and the anti-icing performance of the products. Some of those methods are included in actual SAE documents and some are in development. This paper will present a review of those methods and also cover the future directions of the research and development in the field.