Analysis of Ice Formation Over An Aircraft Wing

e-ISSN: 2582-5208
International Research Journal of Modernization in Engineering Technology and Science

Volume:02/Issue:12/December -2020 Impact Factor- 5.354 www.irjmets.com
ANALYSIS OF ICE FORMATION OVER AN AIRCRAFT WING

Archana Devi. N*1, Bala Abirami. S*2, Niranjale. R*3,
Padma Priya. T*4, Nambi Rajan. M*5
*1,2,3,4Student,
Dept.of Aeronautical Engineering,
PSN college of Engineering and technology, Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, India.
*5Student, Dept.of Avionics, PSN college of Engineering and technology, Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, India.
ABSTRACT
The airplane in-flight icing is a serious problem, still causing many accidents. Formation of a solid ice cover with
different structures and shapes of different speed rates and intensities on airplane external surfaces causes an
increase of roughness and alters the flow over the lifting devices. Taking this problem into account, a numerical
simulation has been carried out to model the de-icing simulation over the Airbus A380 wing section in this
project. The right wing of the Airbus A380 has been considered for de-icing CFD simulation instead of
considering the whole aircraft. The wing section along with the winglets has been modelled used CAD
modelling software CATIA V5. The major objective of the work is to predict the aerodynamic drag coefficient of
the wing with leading edge rime ice and performing the CFD simulation of de-icing process to compute the total
time taken for melting the solid ice over the wing. The pre-processing work for CFD simulation has been
carried out using ANSA and TGRID. The tetrahedral elements are used for meshing the wind tunnel domain.
The prism elements which are most commonly used to capture the boundary layer are used to model the ice
formation over the upper surface of the wing. The prism layers are layered as 5mm ice over the upper surface
of the wing. Solidification and melting model is FLUENT CFD solver is used to solve the melting process with the
application of thermal heating of the leading edge part of the wing by using the bleed air from the exit of the
compressor. The results of the CFD simulation shows that, the rapid de-icing of the ice of the wing are possible
with high thermal heating of the leading edge part of the wing with constrains in structural integrity because of
high thermal loading.
Keywords: De-icing simulation, Airbus A380, winglets, CAD modelling software CATIA V5, CFD simulation
ANSA and TGRID
I. INTRODUCTION
Definition: The formation of ice on aircraft external surface during its operation in cold weather is known as
Ice Accretion.
There are super cooled droplets at higher altitudes. These droplets form into ice on coming in contact with the
aircraft surface. Based on the formation, there are two types of ice
• Rime ice (Dry ice)
• Glaze ice (Wet ice)
The Rime ice, is visible at decrease temperatures (-400C to -100C) in which the great cooled droplets freeze
almost straight away onto the surface. In doing so, air is entrapped among the frozen droplets, which offer rime
ice its function white look Rime ice is generally connected to the main factor with a streamlined form wherein
the aerodynamic drag is elevated due to surface roughness and early boundary layer transition. Rime ice is
plenty much less dense with a density of 880 kg/m3 because of the entrapped air.
Glaze ice occurs at higher temperatures (-180C to 00) where liquid droplets freeze. Consequently, is it clear,
with a density of 917 kg/m3. The droplets impinge on the surface do not freeze right away however shape a
film of liquid water that runs back over the surface, freezing step by step at diverse prices. Rime and Glaze ice
tend to respectively form round and horned protrusions near the leading edge.
Another is the mixed ice situation, where glaze ice is surrounded by delicate feather shaped rime ice
formations.
A. Shape, amount and type of ice are determined by:
• Velocity
• Temperature
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• Liquid Water Concentration (LWC)
• Droplet Size (MVD)
• Ice Accretion Time (t)
Fig 1: Types of ice accretion

B. Methods of Ice Accretion Prediction
Normally ice accretion study consists of three major parts namely,
• Study of flow field (Panel Code, Euler Code or N-S Code)
• Study of droplets trajectories and its impaction on aircraft surface (Lagrangian Approach)
• Thermodynamic analysis of freezing process and calculation of mass of ice accreted at the icing surface.
• All the above process has to be repeated in small time steps with modified airfoil shape.
Fig 2: Schematic breakdown of ice accretion modelling procedure

II. FIELD OF STUDY
Mainly there are three types of de-icing techniques employed in for melting the ice over the aircraft wing and
further avoid the accretion of ice formation of the wing surface taken into consideration for the formation of ice
• Freezing point depressant
• Thermal melting
• Surface deformation
In this investigation of ice accretion and de-icing technique employed is thermal melting of rime ice which is
deposited over the leading edge of on Airbus A380 wing with 5mm thickness. Ice accretion is modelled using
prism elements for predicting the drag coefficient value because of 5mm ice thickness above the leading edge of
wing. Then using thermal melting of about 390k is applied on the leading edge of the wing for rapid melting of
ice. The ice melting time is to be computed in this work. In the present work, computational fluid dynamics
tools are used to solve and simulate the ice melting process on the wing. Currently, numerical methods are
widely used as powerful assistant tool in icing and de-icing research.
III. METHODOLOGY
Methodology for CFD simulation of de-icing the ice formation over the leading edge of the aircraft wing for drag
reduction involves

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I. Modeling the aircraft wing using the CAD software CATIA.
II. Pre-processing the modeled wing – CAD cleanup, domain creation and meshing.
III. Applying boundary condition, solver setting and performing the CFD simulation for the modeled wing
using FLUENT CFD solver.
IV. Monitoring the drag coefficient for the base case of the wing.
V. Post-processing the results.
VI. Modeling the ice solid 5mm over the leading edge of the wing.
VII. Again unsteady CFD simulation will be carried out along with flow and thermal in order to visualize the
melting time of ice.
VIII. Temperature on the leading edge increases gradually from 273k to 393 k. For this purpose a profile file
has to be written in order to avoid divergence.
IX. Liquid fraction of ice is monitored on the leading edge until it reaches the value 1.
In this paper, Airbus A380 Wing - Aerofoil NASA SC(02)-0610 on tip NASA SC(02)-0606 on root, The engine
parameters shown in Table 1 are obtained from the engine manufacturer then the CAD model is developed
based on the data obtained.
Table 1: Airbus A380 wing specification and operating condition
Wing Specification
Parameter Dimension
Airfoil at root of the wing NASA SC(02)-0606

Airfoil at tip of the wing NASA SC(02)-0610
Length of the Wing 38m
Wing Root chord length 17.7m
Wing tip chord length 4.6m
Operating condition at Cruise condition (at 35000 ft)
Free stream Mach no 0.8
Free stream velocity 272
Operating pressure(Absolute) 2.391E4 Pa
Ambient temperature 218.92K
Dynamic viscosity 1.434014985E-5 Pa.s
Model Construction
Three-dimensional model of the Airbus A380 wing with winglets was designed using the CAD design CATIA V5
Figure 3 and exported as IGS files. The IGS or IGES file format is a third party file format most probably
supported in all commercially available CFD tool. The IGS files were then imported into ANSA, the mesh
generator. In ANSA, the imported geometry is checked for topology. Then the flow domain is extracted from the
imported model.
Fig 3: Modelled Airbus A380 (Right) wing with winglets

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Fig 4: Modelled Airbus A380 (Right) wing with wind tunnel domain
CFD Simulation of Airbus A380 Wing
The CFD simulation for external aerodynamic drag prediction and deicing of ice over the leading edge of the
Airbus A380 Wing has been carried out with the same operating condition as in the 35000ft cruise altitude
condition. The main operating parameters chosen for simulation are the free stream Mach number, operating
temperature. At first the lift coefficient and drag coefficient of the wing is monitored for the base case of the
without modeling ice over it. Then the ice thickness of 5mm has created using the prism elements on the
leading edge of the wing.
Then CFD simulation (for drag prediction with leading edge ice) has been carried out, the increased drag value
because of leading edge ice can be obtained from the simulation. Then the unsteady simulation of flow over the
modeled wing (with ice at leading edge) has been carried out with enabling the melting model for predicting
the time for melting the ice. The main objective of the work is to identify the melting time of the leading edge
ice.
The first and far-most step is CFD preprocessing of modeled Airbus A380 wing is geometry clean up. This
cleanup has been done using the ANSA meshing tool which is very robust clean up tool. Extracting the fluid
region is the next step in which all the surfaces which are in the contact of fluid are taken alone and all other
surfaces are removed completely. Extracted domain of Airbus A380 Aircraft wing with winglets and without
engine was kept alone show in Figure 3.
IV. MESHING
Surface Mesh
After cleaning up the geometry, the surface mesh is generated in ANSA tool itself. All the surfaces are
discretized using tri surface element. As the geometry has some complicated and skewed surfaces tri surface
elements are used to capture the geometry. The Figure 5 shows the surface mesh of the wing with wind tunnel
domain.
Fig 5: Surface mesh of the Airbus A380 wing (Base case & with leading edge ice)

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Volume Meshing
In preferred CFD domain can also incorporate both static and dynamic areas. The static regions are the zones in
which there gained’t be any shifting part, therefore meshing is an awful lot easy with tetrahedral elements. The
dynamic areas within the CFD area are the zones that has motion which may have sliding motion or linear
motion.
The volume mesh for the static sector of the extracted area of the wing with wind tunnel has generated using
ANSYS-TGRID that's a strong quantity mesh generator. The extent of the static zones of the extracted area
(Wing at the side of wind tunnel domain) is discretized the use of tetrahedral elements for indoors of the tunnel
and prism factors for the formation of ice. The prism factors are wedge shaped elements in which the better
order differential shape of the navier-stokes machine of equations are solved at every and each cellular
centroid of the factors for high accuracy effects. The prism elements also recirculation boundary layers with
static flow domain show in figure 6.
Fig 6: Volume mesh of static region of the domain

Meshing Details
The Boundary conditions for this case are
• Wind tunnel Inlet is assumed to be velocity inlet with velocity of 272 m/s (0.8 mach)
• Temperature at inlet is assumed to be 218.92 K.
• Flow is assumed to be compressible; density of air options in material panel is changed to ideal gas.
• Dynamic viscosity is assumed as 1.434014985E-5 Pa.s
• Outlet is assumed to be pressure outlet with 0 Pascal (static pressure).
Fig 7: Solidification and melting model in ANSYS-FLUENT 13

V. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
CFD simulation of flow over Airbus A380 wing with winglets Analysis carried out to simulate the flow, drag
prediction and de-icing process of the leading edge ice done in three stages and their results are tabulated in
the table 2 and 3.

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Table 2: CFD simulation strategy adopted for this simulation
Sl. No Case Inlet Velocity Predicted CL values Predicted CD
values
1. Base case of the wing 272 m/s 0.026 0.0026
2. Wing with 5 mm leading 272 m/s 0.039 0.0041
edge ice
The ANSYS-FLUENT results of the CFD simulation over the wing all three cases are explained in this section.
A. Simulation result of the flow over Airbus A380 wing – Base case analysis for drag prediction
Inlet velocity – 272 m/s, Inlet temp – 218.92K
Fig 8: Predicted Drag coefficient CL of the Airbus A380 wing (Base case)
Fig 9: Predicted Drag coefficient CD of the Airbus A380 wing (Base case)
Fig 10: Static and Dynamic pressure contour of the Airbus A380 wing (Base case)
B. Simulation result of the flow over Airbus A380 wing with 5mm ice over the leading edge.
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Fig 11: (a) (b)

(a) Predicted Lift coefficient CL of the Airbus A380 wing with 5mm ice over the leading edge of the wing
(b) Predicted Drag coefficients CD of the Airbus A380 wing with 5mm ice over the leading edge of the wing
Fig 12: Static and Dynamic contour of the Airbus A380 wing with 5mm ice over the leading edge
Table 3: De-icing simulation results by using thermal melting
Sl.No Case Model used Time taken for melting
(s)
1. Wing with 5mm ice in the leading Solidification and melting 5 seconds
edge (Solid ice)
C. De-icing Simulation result of the leading edge ice (5mm) using thermal melting.
Leading edge surface temperature – 218.92k
Thermal melting concept for de-icing of leading edge ice has been employed by heating the leading edge of the
wing by sending the bleed air from the compressor. The compressor bleed air from the exit of the compressor
will have a high temperature of about 600 k. This 600k bleed air enters the bleed air duct and reaches the
leading edge around 390k. Because of constrain in structural material used in leading edge of the wing has

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become complex problem in designing the de-icing system. Normally the aluminium alloys and metal matrix
composites used in are the leading edge of the wing can with stands approximately upto 420k.
The CFD simulation for de-icing has been carried out for 5.5 seconds with the temperature in the leading edge
increase gradually, over which the 5mm thickness of ice has been formed. A profile file has been written and
hooked for the purpose of gradually increase the temperature on the leading edge boundary surface over which
the ice has been formed. This profile file is read in FLUENT and hooked to the boundary condition of the leading
edge surface of the wing. This is done by opening the boundary condition panel and selecting the corresponding
boundary name.
The results of the de-icing simulation with respect to time is shown in Figure 4.6 to 5 sec, which are directly
showing the liquid fraction of melting ice over leading edge surface.

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Fig 13: Liquid fraction of melting ice at 4.6, 4.8 and 5 seconds
VI. CONCLUSION
It is observed from the simulation results that the aircrafts drag will increase up to 2 times of base case of the
wing if the wing has the ice accretion problem in bad weather conditions. It is shown in this work that the
melting time of the 5mm rime which is accreted over the upper surface, leading edge of the Airbus A380 wing is
about 5 seconds, which is rapid de-icing process. The temperature at the leading edge can also be given as high
as greater then 500k but material selection for the leading edge is a constrain.
If the temperature of the bleed air from the compressor is very much high, continuous thermal loading will
cause the structural failure in the leading edge wing surface. So the thermal energy applied for de-icing process
is limited because of the above said constrains. And again, there are also constrains in computationally
modeling the thermal melting of ice over the wing surface if the temperature difference is very much high.
Divergence problems will arise when the CFD solver is solving the system of flow governing equations along
this thermal melting. The divergence problem has been resolved by applying the gradual increase in
temperature on the leading edge surface from 218.92k to 393k.
VII. REFERENCES
[1] R. Mikalsen, A.P Roskilly, 2009 “Performance simulation of a spark ignited free-piston engine generator”.
[2] R. Mikalsen, A.P Roskilly, 2009 “The design and simulation of a two-stroke free-piston compression
ignition engine for electrical power genetation”.
[3] A.Z.M. Fathallah and R.A. Bakar, 2009 “Design Optimization of Spring and the Effects on Scavenging and
Pressure Ratio for Two Stroke Single Cylinder Spark Ignition Linear Engine”.
[4] A.Z.M. Fathallah and R.A. Bakar, 2010 “The Effect of Spring Design as Return Cycle of Two Stroke Spark
Ignition Linear Engine on the Combustion Process and Performance”.
[5] R.Mikalsen, A.P Roskilly, 2009 “Coupled dynamic-multidimensional modelling of free-piston engine
combustion”.
[6] Ahmad Aamal Ariffin, Nik Abdullah Nik Mohamed and Syarizal fonna, 2006 “ Simulation of Free Piston
Linear Engine Motion with Different intake and Exhaust Port Positions”
[7] Martin Ekenberg and bengt Johansson, 2008 “The Effect of Transfer Port Geometry on Scavenging Flow
Velocities at High Engine Speed”
[8] M.M.Noor, K.Kadirgama, Devarajan R., M.S.M.Sani, M.F.M.Nawi, T.F.Yusaf,2008 “Cfd simulation and
validation of the in-cylinder within a motored two stroke si engine”
[9] Semin, N.M.I.N. Ibrahim, Rosli A. Bakar and Abdul R. Ismail, “In-Cylinder Flow through Piston-Port
Engines Modeling using Dynamic Mesh”.
[10] Ahmad Kamal Ariffin, Nik Abdullah Nik Mohamed, “Simulation of free piston linear engine motion with
Different Intake and Exhaust Port Positions”.Journal of Applied Science Research, 4(1) PP 58-56.
[11] Francisco Brojo, Antonio Santos, Jorge Gregorio, 2010 “Computational Analysis of the Scavenging of a
two-stroke Opposed Piston Diesel Engine”.
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Analysis of Ice Formation Over An Aircraft Wing

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e-ISSN: 2582-5208

International Research Journal of Modernization in Engineering Technology and Science

ANALYSIS OF ICE FORMATION OVER AN AIRCRAFT WING

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Fig 1: Types of ice accretion

Fig 2: Schematic breakdown of ice accretion modelling procedure

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Airfoil at root of the wing NASA SC(02)-0606

Fig 3: Modelled Airbus A380 (Right) wing with winglets

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Fig 6: Volume mesh of static region of the domain

Fig 7: Solidification and melting model in ANSYS-FLUENT 13

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Fig 11: (a) (b)

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