Methods for obtaining and reducing experimental droplet impingement data on arbitrary bodies

Experimental water droplet impingement data are used to validate particle trajectory computer codes used in the analysis and certification of aircraft de-icing/anti-icing systems. Water droplet impingement characteristics of aerodynamic surfaces are usually obtained from wind-tunnel dye tracer experiments. This paper presents a dye tracer method for measuring water droplet impingement characteristics on arbitrary geometries and a new data reduction method, based on laser reflectance measurements, for extracting impingement data. Extraction of impingement data has been a very time-consuming process in the past. The new data reduction method developed is at least an order of magnitude more efficient than the method previously used. The accuracy of the method is discussed and results obtained are presented.