Keynote Title:
Aeroengine Icing Physics and Innovative Strategies for Icing Mitigation

Abstract:

Aero-engine icing is widely recognized as a significant hazard to aircraft operations in cold weather. The speaker will introduce his recent research in conducting comprehensive experimental campaigns to elucidate the underlying physics of aero-engine icing phenomena by leveraging a unique Icing Research Tunnel available at Iowa State University (i.e., ISU-IRT). A suite of advanced flow diagnostic techniques, including molecular tagging velocimetry and thermometry (MTV&T), digital image projection (DIP), and high-speed infrared (IR) imaging thermometry techniques, are developed and applied to quantify impinging dynamics of airborne, supercooled water droplets, transient wind-driven water runback flows, unsteady heat transfer and dynamic ice accretion processes over the surfaces of rotating fan blades and spinners. Anti-/de-icing performances of various bio-inspired, hydro-/ice-phobic coatings/surfaces, including a lotus-inspired superhydrophobic surface (SHS) and a pitcher-plant-inspired Slippery Liquid-Infused Porous Surfaces (SLIPS), are evaluated quantitatively under different icing conditions (i.e., ranged from dry rime icing to wet glaze icing conditions). The recent research efforts on aero-engine icing due to the inhalation of airborne ice crystals/particles as aircraft flying through high-altitude clouds will also be introduced briefly. The findings derived from the icing physics studies are extremely helpful in improving current icing accretion models and developing effective anti-/de-icing strategies to ensure the safer and more efficient operation of aero-engines in cold weather.