A Parametric Design Method for Hybrid Airfoils for Icing Wind Tunnel Test

Abstract

The size of aircraft models that can be tested in icing wind tunnels is limited by the dimensions of the facilities in present; it is an effective method to replace the large model with a hybrid airfoil to carry out the experiment. A design method of multiple control points for hybrid airfoil based on the similarity of flow field in the leading edge of airfoil is proposed. Aiming at generating the full-scale flow field and ice accretion on the leading edge, multiobjective genetic optimization algorithm is used to design the hybrid airfoil under different conditions by combining the airfoil parameterization and solution of spatial constraint. Pressure tests of hybrid airfoils are carried out and compared with the leading edge pressure of the corresponding full-scale airfoils. The design and experimental results show that the pressure coefficient deviation between the hybrid airfoils designed and the corresponding full-scale airfoil in the 15% chord length range of the leading edge is within 4%. Finally, the vortex distribution and ice accretion process of the two airfoils were simulated by the unsteady Reynolds-averaged-Navier–Stokes (URANS) equations and multistep ice numerical method; it is shown that the hybrid airfoil can provide the same vortex distribution and ice accretion with the full-scale airfoil.