Collaborative Experiments and Computations in Aircraft Icing

The formation of ice over lifting surfaces can affect aerodynamic performance. The ability to predict ice accumulation and the resulting degradation in vehicle performance is essential to determine the limitations of aircraft in icing encounters. The consequences of underestimating performance degradation can be serious and so it is important to produce accurate predictions, particularly for severe icing conditions. The simulation of ice accretion is a challenging multidisciplinary problem that requires close collaboration between the computational and ground test communities. This paper describes three recent case studies and the lessons learned through collaborative experiments and computations in aircraft icing- one for large commercial transports, one for rotorcraft, and one dealing with icing on regional jets.