ENES

331: Semester Project, Fall Semester 2014

AIRCRAFT ICING

Figure 1. Aeroflot Airbus A330 de-iced at Sheremetyevo International Airport. From wikipedia.com.

1. Background:
This background section is based on an article on Safety Advisor (FAA Flight Safety Branch) Weather
No.1 and on an article by Brendan Borrell published on Scientific American in February 2009. Most of
the text is quoted directly from these two sources along with some of the enclosed pictures.
Ice in flight is bad news. It destroys the smooth flow of air on the wings. It increases drag and decreases
the ability of the foil to generate lift. The actual weight of the ice on an airplane is not a major
contributing factor to the potential demise of the aircraft.
In-flight icing occurs when a plane is flying through clouds made up of small liquid water droplets.
These liquid droplets can be sustained as liquid below the freezing point (0C). It turns out that the water
in the atmosphere is very pure and there is no solid surface for the water to freeze on (e.g. dust particle).
Temperatures can go as low as minus 40 C and still the water can exist in liquid form. When these
highly subcooled droplets come in contact with the plane surfaces, they "instantaneously" freeze and so
ice builds up.
Figure 2 shows three photographs of the leading edges of wings on actual flying aircraft where ice
formation is quite significant. The flow disruption is major in these cases and the ability of the wing to
generate lift is severely compromised.

Figure 2. In-flight wing leading-edge ice formation (photos by NASA). Clear ice (top left), mixed ice (bottom left)
and rime ice (right).

Ice reshapes the surface of the lift-producing parts of the airplane: the wings and tail. That roughness is
enough to change the aerodynamics of the wing such that there is more drag and less lift. This eventually
leads to the wing to stall (i.e. loss of lift), at which point the pilot needs to recover the wing lift by
pushing the nose of the aircraft down, thus reducing the angle of attack and increasing speed. Most icing
accidents occur in the approach and landing phases of the flight. In these conditions, the use of flaps may
induce stall on the tail surfaces of the aircraft and contribute to loss of lift on the aircraft. The inability to
use flaps and the need for sustained speed to overcome a possible stall situation both lead to longer
runway requirements for the aircraft. This may cause significant problems if long runways are not
available at a given airport.
The semester project focuses on the ice formation process. In this simplified icing problem, small water
droplets are uniformly distributed in the air and the aircraft moves at a speed that allows one to consider
the droplets to be stationary in the air before the wing approaches. As the aircraft wing (airfoil) slices
through the air laden with water droplets, the air quickly moves out of the foils way. The water droplets
having a significantly larger mass respond more slowly and some of them are indeed unable to move
away in time. These droplets impact the airfoil and, if appropriately subcooled, contribute to ice
formation on the foil itself. A major factor controlling the rate at which ice accumulates is the collection
efficiency, = h/H, which is defined as the percentage of droplets contained within the projected frontal
area that impact the surface of the airfoil (see figure 3). A collection efficiency of 100% means that all
droplets in this region are collected, while 0% implies that all droplets move around the obstacle and none
impact the surface.

Figure 3: Behavior of different size droplets impacting an airfoil for the same flow conditions.
The project aims at quantifying the distribution of the flux of water on the airfoil surface as a function of
aircraft speed and droplet size distribution.

2. Educational Goals of the Project

This project is not intended to simply be more fluid mechanics homework to keep you busy. Rather, the
intent is to:
1. Provide you with an opportunity to develop skills in learning material through independent study,
and to obtain some experience in performing independent discovery and research. The main topic
and background information required for this project (Dimensional Analysis) will not be lectured
in class, except in response to your questions.
2. Experience a realistic engineering application of fluid mechanics within the constraints of a
classroom environment. There are practicing engineers working on this type of problem!

3. Develop skills in the design of engineering experiments and/or models, and be able to critically
assess the accumulated data.

3. Assignment
Your semester project is to:
(1) assess the feasibility of scale model testing of the accumulation of ice on an aircraft wing, We are
concerned here with making sure the collection efficiency of the wing is properly represented, and
will neglect the freezing process and resulting modification of the airfoil shape as the ice
accumulates.
(2) develop a model system of equations to be used to predict the prototype (full-scale) and model
behavior of such a system and
(3) solve this model using Matlab and provide water flux per unit wing surface area rates for a range
of wing and environmental conditions.
Details of the prototype and model constrains, as well as a general explanation of the semester project
process is given below.
3.1 Scaling Analysis
From an experimental perspective, it would be ideal to test the wing-water droplet system under the exact
same conditions as the prototype (full scale aircraft conditions) in order to determine the wing icing rates
and compare these to the numerical model that you will develop. However, due to the expense of largescale experiments and space considerations, this is rarely possible. Therefore, your first task will be to
specify a scaled-down model and operating conditions to a size that could be worked on in a small scale
laboratory. In the lab, there is a wind tunnel with a test section cross section of 1 ft by 1ft and with a
maximum wind speed of 140 ft/s. In the model experiments (which you will design, but NOT actually
set up and perform), you would have an airfoil that spans the width of the wind tunnel. The dimensions
for the prototype case and the dimensions that can be accommodated in the laboratory are given in
Sections I and II below:
I. Prototype (full scale) System

(a) Air and droplet conditions at high elevation:

Cloud Type
Cumulonimbus
Towering Cumulus
Fair Wx Cumulus
Altocumulus
Stratocumulus
Nimbostratus

Largest Droplet
Diameter (mm)
0.076
0.067
0.016
0.010
0.008
0.043

Updraft Velocity to Keep Drop

Aloft (cm/s)
9
6
0.4
0.2
0.07
5

R.R. Rogers, A Short Course in Cloud Physics, 2 ed. Pergamon Press, 1979 H. Byers, General Meteorology, 3
ed.McGraw-Hill, 1959 H.R. Pruppacher, Microstructure of Atmospheric Clouds and Precipitation, in Clouds: Their
Formation, Optical Properties and Effects, P. Hobbs and A. Deepak, eds.,Academic Press, 1981.
Copyright, 2008 Steven L. Horstmeyer, all rights reserved.
(b) Airfoil size: Airfoil chords (length from leading edge to trailing edge) are 1 to 1.5 m for small planes
and 3 to 4 m for large jet aircraft.
(c) Speed range: up to 100 m/s for small planes and up to 320 m/s for large jet aircraft.


II. Laboratory System

(a) Wind tunnel: The test section has a cross section of 0.3 m by 0.3 m and a length of 0.6 m. The
maximum wind speed is 50 m/s.
(b) Airfoil constraints: The airfoil should span the width of the wind tunnel test section. Its chord (length
from leading edge to trailing edge) is to be 0.1 m.

Figure 4: Airfoil geometry definitions

Goals of the Project:

Goal 1. Analyze the physics of the droplet-wing impact system using dimensional analysis as described
in Chapter 7 and come up with a general understanding of the dependencies of ice accumulation rate on
the problem variables.
For the first part of the project, your assignment is to conduct a literature search to help you understand
the principles controlling ice accumulation on wings occurs. Then, using this understanding and the
material from chapter 7 of our textbook, you will develop a set of non-dimensional parameters that
control the ice accumulation. To achieve this goal you should think about the physics of each part of the
process. What are forces that act on the droplets? What are the parameters that describe the droplet
behavior?
In order to conduct the dimensional analysis, there are generally 2 methods that are used: 1) the
Buckingham Pi Theorem, and 2) non-dimensionalization of the governing equations. You will be required
to do both as a check on your work, as they should provide similar results if done properly.
1) Buckingham Pi Analysis: In this approach, you need to specifically list all of the physical parameters
that may be involved and any supporting equations necessary to describe the phenomena. As a minimum
you should consider: variables describing airfoil shape and speed, the air flow (such as density, a
reference velocity and/or velocity distribution), relevant droplet properties, and other environmental
conditions that are likely to control how a droplet moves around an airfoil. This is by no means a
complete or accurate list.
Decide first what your independent variables should be (i.e. the ones you have control over during an
experiment), and use what you have found out about your flow to select your repeating variables. After
forming your non-dimensional parameters, you may eliminate those that are unimportant provided you
give rational arguments and citations for doing so. In your reports, you should NOT include a discussion
of how a general dimensional analysis and scaling is conducted as outlined Chapter 7 of Munson et al.,

but it should be evident from your presentation that such a consistent procedure was used to obtain the
dimensionless groups. As a point of clarification, simply listing common dimensionless parameters in
fluid mechanics (section 7.6 of your book) does not constitute a proper dimensionless analysis. What you
need to do is procedurally outlined in sections 7.1 through 7.4 (or 7.5 if you like). A quiz will be given
on this material, and a summary of your application of this problem to the project will be due in studio on
the week of September 29 (listed as project update).
2) Non-dimensionalization of the governing equations: This method is discussed in section 7.10 of your
text, and the non-dimensional groups are found through introducing non-dimensional variables into the
original dimensional form. The section below and the appendix give you some starting points to think
about in developing the required equations, which are simply Newtons Law applied to a moving droplet.
Additional guidance and handouts will be given as needed throughout the semester.
Model Scaling: In order to ensure that a small-scale model test accurately represents the full-scale
prototype, one needs to ensure that the independent Pi terms are equal for both the model and prototype.
This is summarized in the Theory of models section 7.7 of your text. Strictly speaking, you need to
satisfy this requirement for all independent Pi terms. You will probably find that you are not able to
satisfy all of the scaling constraints, and you will have to decide which scaling considerations can
reasonably be neglected in order to propose a model test. Use your scaling analysis to select the final
parameters and operational characteristics of the scaled proposed experimental model. The dimensions
and rough sketch of the model should be included in this report.
Goal 2. Develop a computational model using MATLAB (with ODE45) that will predict the trajectory of
a droplet as an airfoil passes by and determine whether or not the droplet will hit the wing. Then, use this
model to predict the flux of water per unit area on the surface of the airfoil for various water droplet and
airfoil conditions.
The development of this code will be done in three steps.
1. Write a code that can predict the two-dimensional path of a droplet in a vacuum in the presence of
a constant body force (gravity). Compare numerical prediction to the analytical solution. This will
be completed as part of an individual homework assignment.
2. Write a code that can predict the two-dimensional path of a droplet in stationary air in the
presence of a constant force. Show comparison of droplet trajectory with trajectory from first
code. This will be completed as part of an individual homework assignment.
3. Write a code that can predict the two-dimensional path of a droplet in the flow field of a wing.
(Working code with one example calculation due with preliminary report, week of October
27.) We will give you a Matlab subrountine that computes the flow field around airfoils with a
variety of shapes.
4 Project Reports
In order to complete the project, you will first need to learn the material in Chapter 7 (Similitude,
Dimensional Analysis and Scaling) of Munson et al (2009). We are not planning to give any lectures or
assign any homework problems on the material in Chapter 7. To help you learn the material, the solutions
to all of the homework problems in Chapter 7 will be placed online, and both the instructors and TAs will
be happy to help you understand the material. You can work through this material without prior
knowledge of fluid mechanics, so begin studying it right away.
The reporting for the project is divided into two parts, with the first one being a brief technical summary
of your work-to-date and the second being a complete self-contained summary of the project. The
structure of the reports is outlined below:

1a) The Preliminary Results report is due the week of October 27 in studio: The preliminary results report
will report on your initial attempts to propose a scale model test for the wing icing problem, outlining
your dimensional variables, dimensionless variables resulting from the Pi analysis, your proposed model
testing conditions, your proposed equations to be solved and your Matlab code. This is to be a brief (no
more than 2 pages of text plus tables, figures and equations) summarizing your dimensional analysis,
model scaling, and equation development. The preliminary scaling report should specify:
1. An outline of the method you used for you analysis (table of dimensional variables, units, and
description)
2. A clear statement of your assumptions and rational for choosing them.
3. A presentations of the required scaling terms (in the form of a table), proposed scale testing
conditions, and a focused discussion on your rationalization used to get them.
4. The non-dimensional form of the equations developed for use in the model solved in the Matlab
code.
5. The working Matlab code with one sample plot of a droplet trajectory.
2b) The Final Report is due on Friday, December 12: The complete report will consist of a corrected
version of the scaling analysis previously submitted, elaborated into a formal technical report including
the results of your analytical model. In addition
1) Tabulated or graphical presentation of relevant computed results.
2) Discussion and observation of results, with conclusions and recommendations on the feasibility
of the model tests to accurately represent the full scale prototype results.
Be sure to reference all the material (including figures) that you get from your references. As in the real
world, if you include someone elses statements or results in your report without proper citation, it is
considered an act of plagiarism. Grades will be based on the technical content, grammar, and presentation
of the report.
5 References and Sources for the Project
1) Munson, B. R., Young, D. F. and Okiishi, T. H. 2009 Fundamentals of Fluid Mechanics, John
Wiley and Sons, Inc.
2) Research Journals: There are several research journals and conference proceedings available
through the library (online and in print) that are either dedicated entirely to multiphase flow (like
our air-water system), or have articles related to our topic. If you are unfamiliar with searching
the journal database for articles, please speak with a reference librarian, the instructors, or the
TAs. We will all be happy to show you how use them.
3) Web sites: Your are encouraged to use the web as a source of inspiration and information. All
material you use as a part of the project should receive the proper citation. This means you should
cite the author, URL address, the date it was composed (if available), and the date you accessed
the site.