The National Research Council’s Gas Turbine Laboratory provides industry leading icing facilities that allow manufacturers to develop, validate and certify new products for flight in adverse conditions. This paper shows how NRC measurement techniques are used across the facilities, and presents a literature-review of recently developed capabilities. The overview includes new details on some facilities, and future capabilities that are in development or planned for the near future.
Methods developed at the NRC for characterizing inclement conditions are discussed and include the Isokinetic Probe, Particle Shadow Velocimetry, the Particle Detection Probe, and a size-binned real-time thermodynamic evaporation model. These are used to deliver accurate icing water content in facilities like the sea-level ice crystal generator, the Rotating Icing Rig, the Research Altitude Testing Facility, and liquid water test facilities in Ottawa and in Thompson, Manitoba at the Global Aerospace Centre for Icing and Environmental Research (GLACIER).