An Automatic Multi-Stepping Approach for Aircraft Ice Prediction

be reproduced without the written permission of the copyright owner. Flying an aircraft in icing conditions may seriously degrade its aerodynamical perfor-mance and threaten the flight safety. Over the years, new technologies and improved procedures have limited the potential risks caused by aircraft icing. Experimental studies being very expensive, numerous computer codes have been developed to simulate ice shapes and tackle the problem. Typically in these codes, a flow solu-tion and key icing parameters are evaluated around a clean un-iced geometry and their values remain constant during the entire simulation. This approach may be acceptable for short exposure times or when the ice shape only slightly deforms the initial geometry. However, in other cases, the values of the icing parameters may vary and the simulation will loose its accuracy: for large shapes, the presence of the ice influences the surrounding airflow significantly, altering the value of icing parameters and ultimately the ice accretion. Calculating more accurate ice shapes therefore requires to periodically recompute the flow field around the body durin