Altitude scaling of ice crystal accretion

This paper describes experiments performed in an altitude chamber at the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) as the first step towards developing altitude scaling laws and procedures that will possibly allow aero-engines to be certified for operation in ice crystal clouds at high altitude by testing in sea level facilities. The principal objective was to test the hypothesis that accretion within a compressor due to ice crystal ingestion occurs when the local ratio of freestream liquid water content (LWC) to total water content (TWC) lies within a critical range at an accretion-susceptible location. If this hypothesis is correct, the local LWC/TWC ratio is the key parameter that must be matched in tests at low and high pressures to match accretions. Experiments were conducted in a small wind tunnel with an axisymmetric test article, consisting of a hemispherical nose attached to a conical afterbody, at a fixed TWC over a range of LWC/TWC ratios at (absolute) pressures of 34.5 kPa and 69 kPa to test the hypothesis. The LWC/TWC ratio was varied by changing the wet bulb temperature. Accretion steady-state volumes and growth rates measured at the two pressures were compared at conditions which were analytically predicted to produce matched LWC/TWC ratios. Good agreement was achieved in all cases. Accretion growth was greatest for LWC/TWC ratios in the range 10-25%. Additional tests demonstrated that wet bulb temperature, which was identified as an important variable in earlier studies, had little influence on accretion growth beyond its effect on LWC/TWC (i.e. ice particle melting). Tests were also conducted to determine whether accretion growth scales linearly with TWC at constant LWC/TWC. Those tests confirmed that not only does the accretion growth rate in the early growth phase scale in direct proportion to TWC, but so does the final size of the accretion. A simple semi-empirical model for predicting this behavior is described. While most of the tests were conducted with an ice particle median volumetric diameter of 45\u3bc, some of the scaling tests were repeated with larger particles, which produced smaller accretions. \ua9 2013 by Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada. Published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye