Altitude Scaling of Thermal Ice Protection Systems in Running Wet Operation

摘要

A study into the effects of altitude on an aircraft thermal ice protection system (IPS) performance has been conducted by the National Research Council Canada (NRC) in collaboration with the NASA Glenn Research Center. The study included tests of an airfoil model, with a heated-air IPS, installed in the NRC's Altitude Icing Wind Tunnel (AIWT) at altitude and ground level conditions. Two scaling strategies were employed based on Reynolds number and Weber number, the latter combined with matching the ratio of water loading and evaporative rates. The Reynolds number-scaled conditions resulted in greater mass of accreted ice that formed further back from the leading edge, whereas the Weber number approach provided a close match to reference altitude conditions in terms of ice mass, location, and shape.