Ice Crystal Fragmentation and Accretion on the Rotating Test Rig of ICE-MACR

What is it about?

Over the last decades turbofan engines have been experiencing undesirable in-flight events related to ingestion of ice crystals, such as power loss and compressor mechanical damage. The MUSIC-haic project was a research and innovation action funded by the European Union (H2020 program) which aimed to build on past research projects and existing multi-disciplinary tools to provide the aeronautic industry with an Ice Crystal Icing numerical capability usable for both design and certification purposes. Under this context the paper analyzed the Ice Crystal Environment Modular Axial Compressor Rig (ICE-MACR), developed and run by the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), using GE Aerospace in-house modeling tools. The fragmentation analysis involves 3D CFD aero simulation of the complete ICE-MACR single-stage airflow passage followed by Lagrangian particle tracking. The predictions from this analysis, carried out at three different rotational speeds, are comparable with test observations. For accretion predictions, GE Aerospace in-house Ice Crystal Accretion Tool (ICAT) was used at different radial span locations on the test article vane and the final 3D ice shape was predicted using a pseudo-3D approach. The ice thickness and shape predictions are verified at different ice crystal melt-ratios/severity regimes.

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Photo by Isaac Struna on Unsplash

Photo by Isaac Struna on Unsplash

Why is it important?

The present paper provides a synthesis of the numerical simulations concerning particle breakup and ice accretion carried out using in-house ice crystal icing capabilities developed at GE Aerospace. Ice crystal icing tests were carried out on the ICE-MACR rig which is very close to an actual engine environment developed and tested at NRC. The ice crystal icing tests dataset allowed to validate the ICAT model. The trend of increasing severity obtained from the numerical simulations showed proper consistency with the observations in the tests.

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