Numerical Simulation of Unsteady Conjugate Heat Transfer of Electrothermal Deicing Process

Abstract

A novel 3-D unsteady model of in-flight electrothermal deicing process is presented in this paper to simulate the conjugate mass and heat transfer phenomena of water film runback, phase change, and solid heat conduction. Mathematical models of water film runback and phase change are established and solved by means of a loosely coupled method. At the current time step, solid heat conduction, water film runback, and phase change are iteratively solved until the heat boundary condition reaches convergence, then the temperature distribution and ice shape at the moment are obtained, and the calculation of the next time step begins subsequently. A deicing process is numerically simulated using the present model following an icing tunnel experiment, and the results match well with those in the literatures, which validate the present model. Then, an in-flight deicing process is numerically studied to analyze the effect of heating sequence.