UAV Icing: Experimental Investigation of Ice Shedding Times with an Electrothermal De-Icing System
Joachim Wallisch, Richard Hann
Abstract
View Video Presentation: https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2022-3905.vid Icing encounters can reduce the aerodynamic performance of aircraft significantly. To protect aircraft against the adverse effects of icing, ice protection systems are required. As of today, no mature ice protection systems exist for medium-sized fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). An important factor for the development of a de-icing system is to determine the required heat loads and heating periods. This work presents ice shedding times from experimental tests in an icing wind tunnel. An RG-15 airfoil equipped with a de-icing system is tested under conditions that are typical for medium-sized drones and cover the three icing regimes of glaze, mixed, and rime ice. The experiments show that increasing the ice protection system's heat flux reduces the time required for the ice to shed. However, the energy efficiency of the de-icing system decreases for higher heat fluxes. Another finding is that the angle of attack influences the shedding times significantly. While the effect of intercycle times on the shedding time depends on the temperature, the system becomes more energy-efficient for longer intercycle times for all temperatures. These results help to define more energy-efficient operation procedures for ice protection systems for UAVs.