Three-dimensional computational simulation of glaze ice accretion on a rotorcraft engine intake

Abstract

A three-dimensional computational model based on partial differential equations for the evaluation of the water film thickness, the ice height, and the equilibrium surface temperature is developed for the investigation of glaze ice accretion on complex configurations. As the first step, a compressible Navier-Stokes-Fourier air flow solver is used to determine the flow field around the engine inlet. A shallow water droplet model based on the Eulerian framework is then employed to estimate the droplet impingement and the collection efficiency around the rotorcraft engine intake. Finally, the unified numerical solvers of clean air, droplet impingement, and ice accretion?all of which are based on a single unstructured upwind finite volume framework?are applied to investigate glaze ice accretion on a rotorcraft engine intake. The present computational ice accretion predictions are compared with other results. ? 2019, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc, AIAA. All rights reserved.