Prediction of ice accretion and aerodynamic performance analysis of NACA 2412 aerofoil

Abstract Adverse meteorological conditions often contribute to the formation of ice on aircraft wing section, engine nacelle and other parts leading to the loss of lift coefficient and increase in drag coefficient affecting aircraft control and stability. This paper addresses the problem of in-flight icing on an asymmetric aerofoil under three different ambient and cloud conditions. The study involves prediction of the leading-edge ice thickness using a numerical model developed from the mass and energy conservation law and Messinger freezing fraction model at the same Reynolds number. Later on, degradation in the aerodynamic performance of the iced aerofoil was also investigated using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technique, taking the flow field around a 2D aerofoil geometry into account. The aerodynamic study indicates that cumulus clouds embedded with stratified clouds contribute to the formation of mixed ice on aerofoil leading edge and causes the worst icing scenario reducing the lift coefficient to 90% and increasing the drag coefficient to 800% for the same ambient conditions.