Proposal of Novel Icing Simulation Using a Hybrid Grid- and Particle-Based Method

Abstract

ABSTRACTIcing on aircraft can drastically reduce aerodynamic performance and lead to serious accidents. Therefore, prediction of the accreted ice shape and area and its effects on aerodynamic performance is crucial during the design phase of an aircraft. However, numerical simulations based on conventional grid-based methods such as the finite volume method cannot accurately reproduce the complex ice shapes, which involve horn growth, feather growth, air voids, and severe surface roughness. In the present study, instead of the grid-based method, a hybrid grid- and particle-based method was newly proposed and applied to the icing problem on a NACA0012 airfoil. The explicit moving particle semi-implicit method was employed as the particle-based method due to its short computing time. The numerical simulations effectively reproduced feather-shaped ice, air voids, and surface roughness. Finally, by computing the flow around the iced airfoil, it was confirmed that flow separation around the leading edge occurred due to the ice layer, which resulted in a thicker boundary layer and wake and an increase in the drag coefficient of approximately 70% after a residence time of only 60 seconds.