Wing icing of ground-effect vehicle: numerical simulation

Abstract

Object and purpose of research. This paper studies wings of ground-effect vehicles (GEV). Thanks to their capability of all-year-round operation, GEVs, along with air-cushion vehicles (ACVs) could make remote areas of Russian Siberia, Far East and Arctic much more accessible. However, GEVs operating in these areas may be exposed to icing, so this paper focuses on development of icing prediction procedure for GEV wing. Materials and methods. Icing of GEV wings cannot be described by the methods traditionally used for displacement ships and aircraft. In particular, flow speeds near GEV wing depend on its altitude above sea surface that, in its turn, is a source of splashes. This paper investigates the capabilities of ANSYS simulation tools for icing and aerohydrodynamic parameters. Main results. This paper compares icing simulations for GLC305-type wing with infinite elongation and CLARK-profile both near the ground-effect surface and far from it. Simulation results were used to determine aerodynamic parameters of wings taking the icing into account. The paper also suggests possible ways to improvements of CFD-based numerical simulation procedure for icing of dynamically supported craft. Conclusion. Numerical simulation methods make it possible to predict the implications of ground effect for icing parameters, e.g. ice accumulation rate, of GEV wing.

Keywords

• numerical simulation
• icing
• ground effect