Deposition Zones on the Super-Hydrophobic Coating for the TsAGI-831 Aerodynamic Airfoil

Aeronautical and Space-Rocket Engineering


Аuthors

Zhigulin I. E.1*, Skidanov S. N.1, Sidorov O. P.2

1. Moscow Aviation Institute (National Research University), 4, Volokolamskoe shosse, Moscow, А-80, GSP-3, 125993, Russia
2. PJSC Yakovlev , 68, Leningradskiy prospect, Moscow, 125315, Russia

*e-mail: iliya.zhigulin@yandex.

Abstract

Icing poses one of the most significant environmental threats to aircraft, severely affecting the flight safety. While flying under icing conditions, or even afterward, the aircraft aerodynamic performance is substantially degrading. Ice formation on various parts of the aircraft complicates flight conditions and may potentially lead to a crash. Specifically, ice accumulation on the wing decreases the lift coefficient (Cy) and increases the drag coefficient (Cx). As a consequence of the wing bearing capacity decrease,  reduction of the permissible angles of attack occurs in flight, as well as change in the allowable flight speed range. This work aims at providing both analytical and experimental evidence that application of modern materials and functional coatings can effectively reduce the extent of the ice formation on the aerodynamic surface due to the more effective unfrozen drops removing from the surface. The airfoil icing study was conducted with the Icing program by the water motion trajectories computing in field of the air flow stream near the TsAGI-831 profile and under conditions of artificial icing in the EU-1 all-season wind tunnel. The article adduces the results of computations and experiments performed under these artificial icing conditions, and comparison of the control profile icing characteristics and the profile with the superhydrophobic coating. The results confirm that the ice forming zone on the superhydrophobic-coated profile was restricted to just two trajectories of droplet movement tangent to the profile, i.e. the droplets impingement zone without further drops spreading, whereas the ice forming zone for the flat profile was defined by the droplets impingement zone, the droplets spreading and freezing zone. The analysis revealed the incomplete wetting mode realization on the superhydrophobic coating surface, at which the viscous friction forces of the falling droplets are negligibleSurface and aerodynamic forces are predominantly affecting the droplet on such kind of surface, due to which the droplet is being blown-out from the surface. New functional coatings are being developed at the A.N. Frumkin Institute of Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry. The new functional coatings being developed at the A.N. Frumkin Institute of Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry supposed for application as antiicing means for aircraft allow enhancing operational properties and aircraft protection in flight from dangerous situations associated with icing.

Keywords:

super-hydrophobic coating, ice-forming zone, testing with icing imitation, certification tests

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