Numerical simulation of a thermal ice protection system including state-of-the-art liquid film model (Q2656108)

The authors propose a model which accounts for the operation of an electro-thermal ice protection system for an airfoil, and its numerical resolution using the finite volume method and a bisection method. They consider three layers above the airfoil surface: a water film, a boundary layer and a free-stream flow layer. They write the energy conservation equations on the airfoil surface and within the liquid film. In the water film, they consider a liquid film model issued from the lubrication theory or long-wave approximation. In the present case, the authors reduce this model to a single differential equation for the liquid film bulk velocity. In the boundary layer above this water film, they compute the mass rate of evaporation. They finally evaluate the variation of enthalpy of the liquid film across a control volume and an approximation of the conduction in the multilayered substratum. For the numerical resolution of this model, the authors use PoliMIce. The conservation equations for the airfoil surface and the water film are solved for each element of the surface mesh and a bisection method is applied to solve the energy conservation in the water layer. The parameters and necessary data are taken from experiments. The paper ends with the presentation of the numerical results and with comparisons with previously obtained ones.