Numerical simulation of three-dimensional rotor icing in hovering flight

Abstract

Rotor icing is a serious threat to helicopter flight safety and computational fluid dynamics technology is very useful in icing prediction. In this work, a numerical simulation method is presented to calculate three-dimensional rotor icing in hovering flight. The rotor flow fields are obtained using overlapping grids. According to Euler two-phase flow, the droplet trajectories and impingement characteristics are predicted. On the basis of three-dimensional ice accretion model, a new runback water distribution method based on shear force and centrifugal force is proposed to simulate liquid water flow and ice shape. The calculation results are compared with the experimental results under different conditions in order to verify the correctness of the method. Furthermore, the effects of blades rotation on the liquid water content distribution and droplet impingement characteristics are studied, and the effect of centrifugal force on ice shape is analyzed. The results show that the blade will influence others with the blade tip Mach number increasing, and centrifugal force will cause the ice thickness increases on leading edge and decreases at both frozen limitations.

Numerical Simulation of Ice Crystal Supercooled Droplet Mixed Phase Icing Based on the Improved Messinger Model

“…The numerical simulation of mixed phase icing of ice crystals and supercooled droplets mainly includes many modules such as mesh generation, flow field calculation, ice crystal/supercooled droplet trajectory calculation, and ice accretion model [24,25]. In this paper, a two-dimensional structural grid is used to mesh around the airfoil.…”

Numerical Simulation of Aircraft Icing under Local Thermal Protection State

“…The numerical simulation of aircraft icing under a local thermal protection state can be divided into several modules including grid generation, flow field calculations, droplet trajectory calculations, and ice accretion calculations [21]. Based on the C++ language, the codes for the icing numerical simulation were compiled.…”

A Hybrid De-icing Strategy Utilizing Tailored Anti-Icing Coatings Paired with Electro-Thermal and Electro-Mechanical Ice Protection Systems for Use on Rotary-Wing Aircraft

“…Glaze ice has a larger effect on rotor performance due to the increased drag caused by the shape of the accretion. In addition, the ice thickness increases with rotor span, likely due to the LWC in the droplets upon impingement [59][60][61] and variation in aerodynamic and centrifugal force [62]. Coffman suggested that the temperature rise due to aerodynamic heating can provide protection from ice accretion from 0 • C to approximately −10 • C [63].…”