The effects of ice formation on airfoil performance

Mohd Azarul Syazari , Che Aziz (2013) The effects of ice formation on airfoil performance. Project Report. UTeM, Melaka. (Submitted)

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Abstract

Ice formation on airfoil due to two main factors, the first factor is by leaving the aircraft vulnerable towards snow and ice formation on land. The second factor is when the aircraft flies into cloud that contains supercooled droplets, as reported by Shields (2011). The ice formation will affect aircraft performance in terms of its ability to fly and manoeuvre. Past studies about ice formation on airfoil had only discussed about basic parameters of airfoil characteristics such as drag force and lift force. The objective of this study was to simulate and analyze the airflow around a two dimensional (2D) airfoil with and without ice formation on the leading edge. Three types of airfoil configurations were constructed using SOLIDWORKS 2010 software based on airfoil coordinates published by Addy (2000). The airfoil models was exported into CFD software in order to be simulated with specified boundary conditions and the results was analyzed. The obtained result shows that clean airfoil generates more lift and less drag compared to rime and glaze ice. At different altitudes, the result shows that as the aircraft ascend to higher altitude, the airfoil’s lift and drag tends to drop. In conclusion, ice formation will decrease the performance of airfoil because the overall shape of the airfoil had changed from normal shape. It was also found that airfoil performance will be affected when the aircraft is at higher altitude because of the change in air properties at high altitude, in terms of density and viscosity.

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