The airworthiness authorities (FAA, JAA, Transport Canada) will be releasing a draft rule in the 2006 timeframe concerning the operation of aircraft in a Supercooled Large Droplet (SLD) environment aloft. The draft rule will require aircraft manufacturers to demonstrate that their aircraft can operate safely in an SLD environment for a period of time to facilitate a safe exit from the condition.
It is anticipated that aircraft manufacturers will require a capability to demonstrate compliance with this rule via experimental means (icing tunnels or tankers) and by analytical means (ice prediction codes). Since existing icing research facilities and analytical codes were not developed to account for SLD conditions, current engineering tools are not adequate to support compliance activities in SLD conditions. Therefore, existing capabilities need to be augmented to include SLD conditions.
In response to this need, NASA and its partners conceived a strategy or Roadmap for developing experimental & analytical SLD simulation tools. Following review and refinement by the airworthiness authorities and other international research partners, this technical strategy has been crystallized into a project plan to guide the SLD Engineering Tool Development effort.
This paper will provide a brief overview of the latest version of the project plan and technical rationale, and provide a status of selected SLD Engineering Tool Development research tasks which are currently underway.