ICE GENESIS - Creating the Next Generation of 3D Simulation Means for Icing

Motivation

ICE GENESIS scope of activities matches perfectly with ACARE Strategic Research & Innovation Agenda, further advancements in understanding, modelling, detection, avoidance and mitigation of in-flight performance degradation are necessary towards enabling harmonised certification with less flight trials.

Objectives

• Improve and validate existing 3D numerical tools to predict ice accretion in App C, App O and Snow conditions
• Upgrade and calibrate icing wind tunnels to allow reproduction of: Supercooled Large Droplets (SLD) and Snow conditions
• To assess the potential of current icing wind tunnels to represent SLD in FZRA (Freezing rain) conditions
• Build a large scale experimental database on representative 3D configurations to be used as a solid reference (“ground truth”) for future numerical tools validation

Content

ICE GENESIS focuses on the understanding and 3D modelling of the icing phenomena on air vehicles. Improvements will be achieved on CS25/29/E App C conditions by moving from 2D to more accurate and less conservative 3D predictions; on CS25/E App O conditions by providing validated numerical tools and calibrated wind tunnels to simulate the FZDZ conditions; and on snow with the development of first generation numerical tools and large scale test facilities. This set of new engineering tools will enable the certification of disruptive configurations versus the new regulations, and will also ease the certification of more classical products by enabling easier and fast-loop computation of complex cases. Moreover, developed numerical means will pave the way towards a future fully digitalized certification approach.

Methodology

The first step of the project will consist in setting up the specifications and test plans. Concurrently, instrumentation will be selected and improved when needed to support the snow ground and flight tests, to facilitate the test facilities calibration and to provide advanced measurement means for the large scale representative experiments. Ground and flight tests will then be conducted in snow conditions throughout a major portion of the project to better characterize the snow precipitation microphysics to consider for the test facilities and the numerical tools. In parallel, test facilities will be improved for App O FZDZ and snow conditions. Test mock-ups will be specified and manufactured, or adapted. Once the mock-ups are available, the improved test facilities ready, and the 3D scanning system developed, the large scale representative experiments (IWT tests) will be able to start.The outcome of these tests will be an experimental database available to all partners for further nuemrical development.

Expected results

• Automatize and further mature/validate 3D numerical tools used for App C to enable their use in an industrial context, reduction of design margins and development time/effort of future products.
• Developed App O FZDZ conditions numerical and test capability in order to meet challenges related to the evolution of regulation and provide necessary means of compliance to enable certification of future products.
• Assessed the potential of current icing wind tunnels to simulate App O FZRA.
• Developed Snow conditions numerical and test to support design of power plant systems.
• Developed representative experimental database covering classical icing conditions (App C), SLD icing conditions (App O) and Snow conditions. 

• AIRBUS - Coordinator
• AIIS - Austrian Institute for Icing Sciences
• AIT - Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH
• IAG - Industrie Automatisierungsgesellschaft mbH
• RTA Rail Tec Arsenal Fahrzeugversuchsanlage GmbH
• 22 EU partner
• 10 partners from Russia, Canada, Japan

 Funding program: H2020-EU.3.4.