Numerical Investigation on a Modified “Piccolo Tube” System in Aircraft Anti-Icing

Abstract

In this work, an anti-icing “Piccolo tube” system is numerically analyzed, in order to investigate the efficiency of hot air impinging jets on internal wing surface. The model is two-dimensional and it is composed by the wing profile and an external volume. External air is considered a mixture, composed by dry air and water-vapor. A steady state problem with standard k-ε model is assumed. Numerical simulations are performed considering an average coefficient on the external surface and thermofluidynamic field inside the wing due to the anti-icing system. Numerical solutions are carried out by means of the Ansys-FLUENT code. Simulations are performed considering two values of the angle of attack, 0° and 4°, and two Mach number values, 0.576 and 0.700, related to the internal flow. esults are presented in terms of velocity and temperature fields, wall temperature profiles along the wing surfaces. As comparison, a case with only dry air in the external domain is performed. Results indicate that in presence of droplets the anti-icing system is less efficient than in the ideal case of dry air. Furthermore, a larger angle of attack improves the performance of the anti-icing system, but a larger Mach number deteriorates it.