Experimental Study of Ice Formation on an Aeronautical Pitot Probe

Jäckel, R.; Gutiérrez-Urueta, G.; Rodrıguez, Fidencio Tapia; Loureiro, Juliana; Monreal, C.

doi:10.1615/tfec2018.asp.024485

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…al. (17) , surface icing on the PP's tip can occur from this moment onwards. This is a necessary, but insufficient condition, for in-flight icing.…”

Section: Simulation Of Operation In Flight Conditionsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Numerical and experimental characterisation of an aeronautic Pitot probe

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Aeronautic Pitot probes (PPs) are extremely important for airspeed and altitude measurements in aviation. Failure of the instrument due to clogging caused by ice formation can lead to dangerous situations. In this work, a commercial aeronautic PP was characterised experimentally regarding its inner composition, material properties and its thermal performance in a climatic wind tunnel. Performance runs were taken out in order to analyse the thermal response of the PP under various operating conditions with a particular emphasis on the cooling process in the case of a heating element failure. Data for the thermal conductivity, diffusivity and specific heat for each material forming the PP were obtained. A numerical model to simulate the thermal behaviour of the PP was created using Comsol Multiphysics (CM). Experimental data were compared with their numerical counterparts for model validation purposes. After the model was validated, the operation of the PP in flight conditions was simulated. The failure of the conventional heating system was analysed to obtain the time until the PP reaches a tip temperature where ice formation can be expected. The tip temperature undercut the zero degrees Celsius mark 165 seconds after the heating element was switched off. The data collected in this work can be used to implement and validate mathematical models in order to predict the thermal performance of Pitot probes in flight conditions.

show abstract

“…al. (17) , surface icing on the PP's tip can occur from this moment onwards. This is a necessary, but insufficient condition, for in-flight icing.…”

Section: Simulation Of Operation In Flight Conditionsmentioning

confidence: 98%