Numerical study of in-flight ice accretion on an airfoil and a pitot-static probe

Abstract

In-flight ice accretion, as an extremely severe hazard in nature, enormously threatens aviation safety and dramatically issues in flight performance deterioration, including availability, maneuverability, affordability, and survivability. Although attracted intensive scrutiny over decades, in-flight icing problems indeed remain to be thoroughly conquered, especially in the field of numerical research. With this motivation, this Ph.D. study dedicates effort to the numerical simulation of in-flight ice accretion. To start with, a dedicated and cost-effective numerical approach for in-flight ice accumulation is proposed, starting from the underlying physical interpretation, the theoretical hypothesis, the mathematic formalism to the final numerical implementation. Coupled with the CFD platform- OpenFOAM, the numerical strategy integrates the airflow determination by the three-dimensional compressible turbulent Navier-Stokes equations, the droplet collection evaluation by a Eulerian representation, and the ice accumulation by mass and energy conservation. The availability of the numerical modeling is validated with caution by comparing with previous experimental and numerical data in the open literature, from initial airflow fields to final rime or glaze ice shapes. Secondly, this study gains an insight into the engineering application of the developed icing solver on the pitot-static system. With particular emphasis on the influence by varying flight conditions- AoA and ambient temperature, in-flight ice accretion are investigated and analyzed on both outer and inner part of the pitot-static probe.