Multi-Shot Icing Simulations with Automatic Re-Meshing

A full-automated CFD mesh generation technique has been developed and implemented for 3-D aircraft icing simulations to permit robust 45-minute ice accretion simulations in support of icing certification campaigns. The changes in the shape of the aircraft surfaces due to accreting ice and their effects on the air and droplet flow are accounted for in a quasi-steady manner by subdividing the total icing time into sequential steps of shorter duration, updating the computational grid at each step. This “multi-shot” ice accretion approach requires robust and accurate grid re-meshing for it to be embedded in engineering design and analysis workflows. ANSYS FENSAP-ICE has been coupled to Fluent Meshing to take advantage of generic and highly automated surface displacement and mesh wrapping tools. A wide spectrum of geometries is supported, ranging from full-size aircraft to air data probes, turbomachinery components, rotors and propellers. With this technology, obtaining 45-minute ice shapes at holding conditions in support of icing certification campaigns requires no manual input from the user once the calculation is started. The results shown include 45-minute ice accretion simulation on a full-size swept-wing commercial jetliner model in high-lift configuration, 30-minute ice accretion on a swept wing, 10-minute Pitot-tube icing with blockage, and 9-minute icing on a propeller blade. For completeness, two NACA0012 airfoil validation cases are compared to icing tunnel tracings.