CFD analysis of a coupled bleed air and electrothermal icing protection system

The numerical model of an innovative system to remove or prevent the formation of ice on the wings of an aircraft during the fight is presented. The new approach joins the two systems currently used to solve the problem of ice formation, namely bleed air system (BAS), and electrothermal system (ETS) respectively. Bleed air system uses engine hot air to heat the airfoil surface, while electrothermal system uses several electrical heaters installed inside the airfoil skin. The coupled system (BAS+ETS) has never been studied, so it represents an innovation in this field of application. CFD analysis is carried out with a commercial code coupling the simulation of the aerodynamic external flow and the thermal field. In addition, two-phase simulations with phase change are carried out using the multiphase ‘volume of fuid’ model and the ‘solidication and melting’ model. Finally, a comparison among the three systems (BAS, ETS and coupled BAS+ETS) in different operating conditions (anti-/de-icing mode) is presented. © 2017, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc, AIAA. All rights reserved