Numerical Icing Simulations of Cylindrical Geometry and Comparisons to Flight Test Results

What is it about?

Aircraft that travel through freezing clouds risk accreting ice on important airframe surfaces and critical flight data sensors, which has led to fatalities and damage throughout the history of aviation. This study uses an aircraft to collect atmospheric data and accreted-ice shapes in natural icing conditions. The atmospheric data are used as the input parameters for ice accretion simulations in Ansys FENSAP-ICE and the accreted-ice shapes are compared to the simulation results. The dynamic conditions in the icing period selected for investigation poses an interesting and unique simulation challenge. This study finds that no combination of simulation settings, input parameters, and multi-shot methods tested generated the same level of surface detail observed in the experiment, however, the amount of ice accretion, general location of ice features, and formation processes were in good agreement with the experimental results.

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