Research progress on airfoil icing characteristics and complex flowfield analysis

Abstract

The theory of aircraft icing and its disaster mechanisms are crucial for preventing icing accidents and enhancing flight performance. The research progress on the flow field characteristics under different icing conditions and special wing configurations are systematically summarized in this paper. It is pointed out that, the actual three-dimensional ice shapes are complex, have multiple structural features, and coupling mechanisms with separated flow and turbulence structures should be further studied. The aerodynamic performance analysis of special wings under supercooled large droplet conditions is the significant future research direction. Turbulence field analysis focuses on identifying instability characteristics of the icing wing flow field and multi-scale structural interaction mechanisms. Exploring the ice-flow coupling mechanism is of reference value for developing multi-factor, multi-parameter, and multi-scale icing prediction and computational models.

Keywords

• icing
• airfoil
• separation flow
• turbulent flow
• numerical simulation