In the US the airport authority use only sand anywhere the aircraft travel. I asked the manager at one of the German airports when I saw a product applied
on the ramp what it was. He mentioned it was not salt but does melt ice. I asked him if it was corrosive and did not really get an answer.
Does anyone know what they use and is it corrosive?
Does anyone know what they use and is it corrosive?
The larger airports tend to use glycol based deice fluid which is absolutely non-corrosive. Smaller ones use urea which is somewhat disgusting but should not cause any damage to aluminium. However, like any dielectric/salt, it can lead to electrolytic corrosion where different metals come together and the dissolved deice substance closes the electric circuit (so to say). But I would say in real life it is not damaging. Just keep your aircraft dry, as long as there is no water, there will be no corrosion.
Just keep your aircraft dry, as long as there is no water, there will be no corrosion.
Difficult to do as the substance melts the ice and as the day heats up and the tires kick it up the slush.
Konsin is used on Inverness aircraft movement areas. I have a suspicion it leads to carb ice at temperatures lower than I would expect. I’ve seen pellets which I think are urea ( chemical industry product) on walkways and vehicle areas.
Popular chemical runway deicers are concentrated solution of acetate salts (potassium, sodium or calcium+magnesium) with corrosion inhibitors.
But they still cause corrosion right? Or is AL less affected?
Theoretically, they are mildly corrosive. Corrosive enough to be prohibited for direct use on wings, but not on runways. The whole issue of protecting aircraft from corrosion is a can of worms. Basically, pure aluminium is much less susceptible to corrosion than mild steel because it’s naturally covered with a passivating oxide layer, and it’s exactly why Alclad is used. On the other hand, this layer is not always impervious, and it may be damaged mechanically or by alkaline substances. There is also electromechanical corrosion at the point of contact between dissimilar metals… There are whole books written on that.
Ok so why use it? In the US it is not practiced even in snow country.They use sand. Not having a mud guard I find mud and dirt on the HS and the elevators. Im also sure that it is brought up into the wheel wells when the gear is stowed.
However the proof is in the pudding. Do any of you know if planes are corroding due to these salts used?
Unfortunately, I have no firsthand knowledge of that. As an educated guess, I’d expect these chemicals to be used only when the risk of not deicing outweighs the potential corrosion risks. Furthermore, I’d say pure water trapped in narrow crevices is a much bigger problem than acetate solution on an open surface. Typical locations of corrosion damage are various joints, surfaces under blistering paint, etc., and the risk of deicer fluid getting sprayed from the runway into these locations is negligible compared to an application of a continuous layer of fluid directly on the aircraft. Essentially, the risk is never zero, but in this case it’s most probably out there in the “easy” corner of the risk matrix.
Ok so why use it? In the US it is not practiced even in snow country.They use sand.
Salt is primarily used (in Sweden at least) to prevent ice from forming when the roads are wet and temperatures are expected to drop below zero. Sanding is of no use before the ice has formed. It is unusual (if it happens at all) to to use salt when temperatures are already below freezing.
