Simulation Study on Ice Accretion over NACA0012 airfoil Under Varying Airflow Conditions

Abstract

Ice accretion on aircraft wings poses a critical safety challenge during operational flights as it alters the aerodynamic performance the wing profile and increases structural loads acting on it. Therefore, it has become crucial to understand the thermodynamic and fluid dynamic behavior of ice formation over the airfoil surface to address this issue. This study investigates the heat and mass transfer characteristics of a two-dimensional NACA0012 airfoil during in-flight icing under various flow conditions. The research aims to model the ice accretion process, analyze its impact on aerodynamic performance, and assess the heating requirements for ice mitigation. Throughout the study, a numerical approach was employed using the FENSAP-ICE simulation suite in ANSYS Fluent, which integrates the Reynold’s-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations with the K-ω SST turbulence model to model airflow and ice formation. Additionally, the study investigated icing at airflow velocities of 80, 102, 150, and 200 m/s, analyzing the resulting ice formation as a result of varying flow speeds, its influence on lift and drag coefficients across different angles of attack, and the heating loads necessary for ice removal using thermal balance calculations. The results of the study showed strong consistency between the simulated ice accretion patterns and droplet collection efficiency and the experimental findings reported in literature. Therefore, validating the use if FENSAP-ICE for such analyses. Furthermore, it was also found that the ice build-up over the airfoil significantly degrades its aerodynamic performance with reductions in lift and increases in drag coefficients. The obtained findings provide valuable insights for expanding the numerical analysis performed in this study to design effective ice protection systems for aircrafts under diverse operational conditions.

Keywords: Computational fluid dynamics, FENSAP-ICE, Heat and mass transfer, Ice accretion, Inflight icing