Adopting a hot film to measure thickness of an ice layer under sweeping wind

Abstract

Ice can easily form on low-temperature surfaces. To prevent damage caused by undesirable ice, the presence of ice on a surface together with the ice thickness must be determined. This investigation proposed to measure the thickness of an ice layer under sweeping wind using a hot film and two thermocouples. On the basis of the steady temperature gradient in the ice layer and the solved ice-layer surface temperature from the main stream, the ice layer thickness was obtained. The model required the heat flux through the ice layer and the measured steady temperature rise at the ice surface adjacent to the heater. The ice thickness determined by the proposed method was compared with that measured with a microcalliper. In addition, CFD was used to generate temperature data to evaluate the proposed method for the ice layer blown by high-speed winds. The results demonstrated that the proposed method could accurately measure the thickness of the ice layer under wind blowing at 5–300 m/s. The relative discrepancy in the inferred ice thickness with the microcalliper-measured thickness was <10%, and the accuracy of the method increased with the wind speed.