Investigation of the Performance of Anti-Icing System of a Rotorcraft Engine Air Intake

Abstract

Ice accretions on the surface around a rotorcraft air intake can deteriorate the safety of rotorcraft due to the engine performance degradation. The computational simulation based on modern CFD methods can be considered extremely valuable in analyzing icing effects before exact but very expensive icing wind tunnel or in-flight tests are conducted. In this study the range and amount of ice on the surface of anti-icing equipment are investigated for heat-on and heat-off modes. It is demonstrated through the computational prediction and the icing wind tunnel test that the maximum mass and height of ice of heat-on mode are reduced about 80% in comparison with those of heat-off mode.