Nowadays, the most common technologies used in the aircraft ice protection systems use indirect methods that identify atmospheric conditions prone to ice accretion, and not in fact the ice accretion over the surfaces, not measuring this accreted ice. On top of that, the ice protection systems are designed based on a certain flight phase considered the most critical for the system and its operation does not depend on the severity of the ice condition.
Using direct methods for detecting the ice accretion on the protected areas and a control system based on the feedback of these sensors, it is possible to reduce the energetic consumption and measuring the ice accreted, optimize it, reducing the penalties for the propulsion system and the aircraft design.
This work assess the required energy by the ice protection system in different typical flight phases, comparing them with the available energy calculated in the design point of the system, measuring the reduction in the energy consumption through the aircraft operation, due to the application of these technologies.