Abstract
This paper proposes a three-dimensional model to simulate ice accretion on the surface of an aircraft. The model is developed using a prism grid cell, which enables iterations with an unstructured mesh. The model assumes that the impinged water droplets on the surface can form a thin water film, and ice accretion is caused by the flow and solidification of the film. The model is developed by analyzing the conservations of mass, momentum, and energy for the thin water film on the surface. The mass and energy conservation equations of the water film are discretized on the prism grid cell, while the momentum conservation equation, which is simplified using lubrication theory, is integrated along the surface normal direction to obtain an analytical solution for the film velocity. The thicknesses of the water film and ice layer are calculated by iterating the discretized mass and energy conservation equations with the analytical solution of the film velocity. The model is verified by comparing its results with published experimental and numerical data. The results show that the model provides accurate predictions of ice accretion under different conditions, even when using an unstructured grid.
Highlights
Ice accretion is a severe threat to flight safety1,2 and has drawn significant attention from researchers around the world since the early 1950s.1 Ever since, large efforts have contributed to numerical simulations of ice accretion, because of its advantages of lower monetary and time resources compared with experimental works
The mass and energy conservation equations of the water film are discretized on the prism grid cell, while the momentum conservation equation, which is simplified using lubrication theory, is integrated along the surface normal direction to obtain an analytical solution for the film velocity
This paper provides a 3D numerical model to simulate ice accretion, which can be applied to unstructured grids, and can consider the effects of the shear stress, pressure gradient, gravity, and surface tension on the movement of the film
Summary
Ice accretion is a severe threat to flight safety and has drawn significant attention from researchers around the world since the early 1950s.1 Ever since, large efforts have contributed to numerical simulations of ice accretion, because of its advantages of lower monetary and time resources compared with experimental works. The model is based on the analysis of flow and solidification of unfrozen water in a two-dimensional (2D) rectangular control volume. In this model, all the unfrozen water in the control volume is assumed to flow downstream, and the ice layer thickness is calculated by iterating the mass and energy conservation equations. All the unfrozen water in the control volume is assumed to flow downstream, and the ice layer thickness is calculated by iterating the mass and energy conservation equations Based on this model, NASA developed the famous ice accretion simulation scitation.org/journal/adv code LEWICE.. Though Messinger’s model was primarily developed for 2D simulations of ice accretion, many efforts have extended the model to three-dimensional (3D) simulations. Some have suggested using the original Messinger model to simulate ice profiles on different cutting-slices of a 3D surface and reconstruct the 3D ice profile from these slices. Others proposed an extended method that uses the shear stress to distribute the unfrozen water on a 3D surface. Messinger’s model still has wide applicability when studying ice accretion
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