Electromechanical ice protection system: de-icing capability prediction considering impedance matching effect

Abstract

Due to the safety threats caused by icing, the de-icing system is essential in the aviation industry. As an effective method, the electromechanical de-icing system (EDS) is a new ice-protection system based on mechanical vibration principles. For the majority of the current research on system de-icing capability estimation, the effect of impedance-matching is not considered. Impedance matching plays a very important role in improving the performance of the electromechanical system, so we must also consider the impact of impedance matching when designing the EDS. In the present study, a de-icing capability prediction method considering the impact of an impedance-matching device is established based on experimental and numerical methods. The results indicate that the impedance-matching effect has no impact on the mechanical vibration of the structure for the same load power. Meanwhile, impedance-matching devices can significantly improve the power factor and increase the interface shear stress/strain for de-icing. Eight different vibrational modes were tested, and the experimental results showed that the actual interface shear strain after impedance matching is inversely proportional to the de-icing time. The verification experiments were conducted and the accuracy of the proposed prediction method was verified.