Fig. 5: Durability and scalability of hybrid de-icing system.

a Cyclic icing/de-icing tests for ice lengths, L, of 60–150 mm (L > L_c). L_c is the critical length of ice. De-icing force per width (F_ice) values before and after the icing/de-icing cycles are statistically equivalent (p-value: 0.22). b The de-icing force or interfacial toughness (Γ) required to remove various lengths of ice after mechanical abrasion, chemical contamination, and outdoor exposure for 3 weeks. Minimum and maximum values are shown as the lowest and highest whiskers, respectively. The box presents the first quartile, mean, and the third quartile, from lower to higher amounts. c De-icing force for the multi-heater hybrid de-icing system, up to a length of 920 mm. The inset shows the accreted and de-iced surfaces. d Movie stills depicting the interfacial crack propagation and adhesive fracture underneath ice with a length of 500 mm and a width of 2 cm. All tests in a–d were conducted with 2.54 cm wide heaters locally raising the temperature from −20 °C to −5 °C. Errorbars denote 1 SD and here N ≥ 5. Source data are provided as a Source Data file⁶⁷.