Experimental analysis of aircraft ice protection system based on ns-SDBD

The Earth's atmosphere contains lots of water vapor at every level. Liquid water droplets in clouds can be below the freezing point, a matter phase state with the thermodynamic name of "supercooled". It so happens that all aircraft flying at subsonic speeds into clouds in these conditions collect ice on every forward exposed structure. This paper presents results of experimental investigations of nanosecond surface dielectric barrier discharge (ns-SDBD) for aircraft ice protection system using a heat release in highly nonequilibrium pulsed plasma. The primary objective of the experiments was to provide empirical data to validate computational models that predict the effects of non-equilibrium plasmas on dynamic ice formation on the surface of airfoils exposed to aircraft icing conditions. The icing wind tunnel tests were conducted at the Collins Aerospace Goodrich Icing Wind Tunnel. The map of the anti-ice effect of the discharge was built using these data. There are three regions of plasma-flow interaction. The first corresponds to extremely cold conditions with high liquid water consumption. Under these conditions, ice accumulation was always observed. On the contrary, low water consumption and relatively high temperatures allow to avoid ice formation at the leading edge of the airfoil.