Experimental and computational investigation into ice accretion on airfoil of a transport aircraft

Ice accretion characteristics on the airfoil of a transport aircraft were studied with both experimental and computational methods.Icing test was carried out in the icing wind tunnel of 0.3m×0.2m test section,in China Aerodynamics Research and Development Center.The test model is a 0.18 -m-chord laminar airfoil,which is the sub-scale model of the transport aircraft's wing section.Numerical simulation of icing was based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method.The flow field of airfoil was calculated by solving time averaged Navier-Stokes equations.Droplet trajectories and impingement characteristics were computed with a Lagrangian method.Ice shape was then obtained after solving the thermodynamic model of icing.Computational results were compared with experimental results.Despite of some geometric differences,the volume,limit and main characteristics of computational ice shape agree well with the experimental results.The study shows that the ice shape on the leading edge of airfoil is streamline at the initial stage of icing,and becomes irregular with increase of icing time.At lower surface of the airfoil,foreside ice is made up of glaze ice,while rear ice,especially ice near the lower impingement limit,is made up of rime ice.At upper surface of the airfoil,icing region is much smaller than that at lower surface,and there is no obvious rime ice even near the upper impingement limit.