In-flight ice accretion occurs when an aircraft flies through a cloud of supercooled droplets, namely, their temperature is below freezing but they are still in the liquid phase. Depending on flight conditions and wall temperature upon impact with the surface this water can freeze or remain liquid forming a thin liquid film. The problem is inter-disciplinary by nature, and can result in several threats leading to major disruption of air operation and aircraft maintenance. A breakthrough, leading to a reduction of time-to-market and certification costs, would be obtained by creating a consensus among certification authorities about the reliability of simulation tools for predicting in-flight ice accretion and the operation of IPS.
TRACES is a European Joint Doctorate network whose main goal is to provide high-level training in the field of in-flight icing. As an active member, my research work primarily focuses on LES and DNS simulation of two-phase flows to capture the onset of roughness due to ice formation. In so doing, existing RANS turbulence models could be improved including local effects resulting from simulations. More infos on TRACES can be found at traces-project.eu.
More publications of the multiphase flows and icing workgroup can be found here.