Proposed modifications to ice accretion/icing scaling theory

Abstract

The difficulty of conducting full-scale icing tests has long been appreciated. Testing in an icing wind tunnel has been undertaken for decades. While aircraft size and speeds have increased, tunnel facilities have not, thus making subscale geometric tests a necessity. Scaling laws governing these tests are almost exclusively based on analysis performed over 30 years ago and have not been rigorously validated. The following work reviews past scaling analyses and suggests revision to these analyses based on recent experimental observation. It is also suggested, based on the analysis contained herein, that current ice accretion predictive technologies, such as LEWICE when utilized in the glaze ice accretion regime, may need upgrading to more accurately estimate the rate of ice build-up on aerodynamic surfaces.