When the offshore device, such as an offshore wind turbine, works in winter, ice accretion often occurs on the blade surface, which affects the working performance. To explore the icing characteristics on a microscale, the freezing characteristics of a water droplet with salinity were tested in the present study. A self-developed icing device was used to record the icing process of a water droplet, and a water droplet with a volume of 5 μL was tested under different salinities and temperatures. The effects of salinity and temperature on the profile of the iced water droplet, such as the height and contact diameter, were analyzed. As the temperature was constant, along with the increase in salinity, the height of the iced water droplet first increased and then decreased, and the contact diameter decreased. The maximum height of the iced water droplet was 1.21 mm, and the minimum contact diameter was 3.67 mm. With the increase in salinity, the icing time of the water droplet increased, yet a minor effect occurred under low temperatures such as −18 °C. Based on the experimental results, the profile of the iced water droplet was fitted using the polynomial method, with a coefficient of determination (R²) higher than 0.99. Then the mathematical model of the volume of the iced water droplet was established. The volume of the iced water droplet decreased along with temperature and increased along with salinity. The largest volume was 4.1 mm³. The research findings provide a foundation for exploring the offshore device icing characteristics in depth.

Airfoils are widely used in the fields of aviation and wind power generation. Icing changes the profile of an airfoil and degrades its aerodynamic performance. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the icing of airfoils and the adhesive characteristics of the ice formed in order to explore their de-icing. In the present study, this is accomplished for the NACA0018 and S809 airfoils through measurement of the areas, thicknesses, and adhesive strength of the ice formed under different wind speeds. The iced area increased linearly with the icing time. The area on the S809 airfoil covered with ice was larger than that on the NACA0018 airfoil because of the maximum thickness of the airfoil profile, the distribution of surface pressures, and the flow state of the air. The effects of wind speed on the adhesive strengths of the ice formed on both airfoils were then explored. The adhesive strength of ice on the NACA0018 airfoil increased with the wind speed, while the wind speed had a minor effect on the ice on the S809 airfoil. These findings provide a foundation for the in-depth exploration of de-icing technology.