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At least 271 records · Page 15

Icing Frequencies Experienced During Climb and Descent by Fighter-Interceptor Aircraft

Data and analyses are presented on the relative frequencies of occurrence and severity of icing cloud layers encountered by jet aircraft in the climb and descent phases of flights to high altitudes. Fighter-interceptor aircraft operated by the Air Defense Command (USAF) at bases in the Duluth and Seattle areas collected the data with icing meters installed for a l-year period. The project was part of an extensive program conducted by the NACA to collect Icing cloud data for evaluating the icing problem relevant to routine operations. The average frequency of occurrence of icing was found to be about 5 percent of the number of climbs and descents during 1 year of operations The icing encounters were predominantly in the low and middle cloud layers, decreasing above 15,000 feet to practically none above 25,000 feet. The greatest thickness of ice that would accumulate on any aircraft component (as indicated by the accretion on a small object) was measured with the icing meters. The ice thicknesses on a small sensing probe averaged less than 1/32 inch and did not exceed 1/2 inch. Such accumulations are relatively small when compared with those that can form during horizontal flight in icing clouds. The light accretions resulted from relatively steep angles of flight through generally thin cloud layers. Because of the limited statistical reliability of the results, an analysis was made using previous statistics on icing clouds below an altitude of 20,000 feet to determine the general icing severity probabilities. The calculations were made using adiabatic lifting as a basis to establish the liquid-water content. Probabilities of over-all ice accretions on a small object as a function of airspeed and rate of climb were computed from the derived water contents. These results were then combined with the probability of occurrence of icing in order to give the icing severity that can be expected for routine aircraft operations.

Perkins, Porter J.↗

The dielectric behaviour of snow: A study versus liquid water content

Snow is treated as a heterogeneous dielectric material consisting of ice, air, and water. The greater difference in the high frequency relative permittivity of dry snow and water allows to determine the liquid water content by measurements of the relative permittivity of snow. A plate condenser with a volume of about 1000 cv cm was used to measure the average liquid water content in a snow volume. Calibration was carried out using a freezing calorimeter. In order to measure the liquid water content in thin snow layers, a comb-shaped condenser was developed, which is the two dimensional analogon of the plate condenser. With this moisture meter the liquid water content was measured in layers of a few millimeters in thickness, whereby the effective depth of measurement is given by the penetration depth of electric field lines which is controlled by the spacing of the strip lines. Results of field measurements with both moisture meters, the plate condenser and the comb-shaped condenser, are given.

Ambach, W.↗

A Thermal Analysis of a Hot-Wire Probe for Icing Applications

This paper presents a steady-state thermal model of a hot-wire instrument applicable to atmospheric measurement of water content in clouds. In this application, the power required to maintain the wire at a given temperature is used to deduce the water content of the cloud. The model considers electrical resistive heating, axial conduction, convection to the flow, radiation to the surroundings, as well as energy loss due to the heating, melting, and evaporation of impinging liquid and or ice. All of these parameters can be varied axially along the wire. The model further introduces a parameter called the evaporation potential which locally gauges the maximum fraction of incoming water that evaporates. The primary outputs of the model are the steady-state power required to maintain a spatially-average constant temperature as well as the variation of that temperature and other parameters along the wire. The model is used to understand the sensitivity of the hot-wire performance to various flow and boundary conditions including a detailed comparison of dry air and wet (i.e. cloud-on) conditions. The steady-state power values are compared to experimental results from a Science Engineering Associates (SEA) Multi-Element probe, a commonly used water-content measurement instrument. The model results show good agreement with experiment for both dry and cloud-on conditions with liquid water content. For ice, the experimental measurements under read the actual water content due to incomplete evaporation and splashing. Model results, which account for incomplete evaporation, are still higher than experimental results where the discrepancy is attributed to splashing mass-loss which is not accounted in the model.

Thermal Analysis↗

Total-Pressure Distortion and Recovery of Supersonic Nose Inlet with Conical Centerbody in Subsonic Icing Conditions

Ice was formed on a full-scale unheated supersonic nose inlet in the NACA Lewis icing tunnel to determine its effect on compressor-face total-pressure distortion and recovery.Inlet angle of attack was varied from 0degrees to 12 degrees, free-stream Mach number from 0.17 to 0.28, and compressor-face Mach number from 0.10 to 0.47. Icing-cloud liquid-water content was varied from 0.65 to 1.8 grams per cubic meter at free-stream static air temperatures of 15 degrees and 0 degrees F. The addition of ice to the inlet components increased total-pressure-distortion levels and decreased recovery values compared withclear0air results, the losses increasing with time in ice. The combination of glaze ice, high corrected weight flow, and high angle of attack yielded the highest levels of distortion and lowest values of recovery. The general character of compressor-face distortion with an iced inlet was the same as that for the clean inlet, the total-pressure gradients being predominantly radial, with circumferential gradients occurring at angle of attack. At zero angle of attack, free-stream Mach number of 0.27, and a constant corrected weight flow of 150 pounds per second (compressor-face Mach number of 0.43), compressor-face total-pressure-distortion level increased from about 6 percent in clear air to 12 percent after 21 minutes of heavy glaze icing; concurrently, total-pressure recovery decreased from about 0.98 to 0.945. For the same operating conditions but with the inlet at 12 deg angle of attack, a change in distortion level occurred from about 9 percent in clear air to 14 percent after 2-1/4 minutes of icing, with a decrease in recovery from about 0.97 to 0.94.

Gelder, Thomas F↗

Performance degradation of a typical twin engine commuter type aircraft in measured natural icing conditions

The performance of an aircraft in various measured icing conditions was investigated. Icing parameters such as liquid water content, temperature, cloud droplet sizes and distributions were measured continuously while in icing. Flight data were reduced to provide plots of the aircraft drag polars and lift curves (CL vs. alpha) for the measured ""iced'' condition as referenced to the uniced aircraft. These data were also reduced to provide plots of thrust horsepower required vs. single engine power available to show how icing affects engine out capability. It is found that performance degradation is primarily influenced by the amount and shape of the accumulated ice. Glaze icing caused the greatest aerodynamic performance penalties in terms of increased drag and reduction in lift while aerodynamic penalties due to rime icing were significantly lower.

Ranaudo, R. J.↗

An overview of a model rotor icing test in the NASA Lewis Icing Research Tunnel

During two entries in late 1989, a heavily instrumented sub-scale model of a helicopter main rotor was tested in the NASA LeRC Icing Research Tunnel (IRT). The results of this series of tunnel tests were published previously. After studying the results from the 1989 test and comparing them to predictions, it became clear that certain test conditions still needed investigation. Therefore, a re-entry of the Sikorsky Aircraft Powered Force Model (PFM) in the IRT was instituted in order to expand upon the current rotor craft sub-scale model experimental database. The major areas of interest included expansion of the test matrix to include a larger number of points in the FAA AC 29-2 icing envelope, inclusion of a number of high power rotor performance points, close examination of warm temperature operations, operation of the model in constant lift mode, and testing for conditions for icing test points in the full scale helicopter database. The expanded database will allow further and more detailed examination and comparison with analytical models. Participants in the test were NASA LeRC, the U.S. Army Vehicle Propulsion Directorate based at LeRC, and Sikorsky Aircraft. The model rotor was exposed to a range of icing conditions (temperature, liquid water content, median droplet diameter) and was operated over ranges of shaft angle, rotor tip speed, advance ratio, and rotor lift. The data taken included blade strain gage and balance data, as well as still photography, video, ice profile tracings, and ice molds. A discussion of the details of the test is given herein. Also, a brief examination of a subset of the data taken is also given.

Britton, Randall K.↗

(GO)2-SIM: a GCM-Oriented Ground-Observation Forward-Simulator Framework for Objective Evaluation of Cloud and Precipitation Phase

General circulation model (GCM) evaluation using ground-based observations is complicated by inconsistencies in hydrometeor and phase definitions. Here we describe (GO)2-SIM, a forward simulator designed for objective hydrometeor-phase evaluation, and assess its performance over the North Slope of Alaska using a 1-year GCM simulation. For uncertainty assessment, 18 empirical relationships are used to convert model grid-average hydrometeor (liquid and ice, cloud, and precipitation) water contents to zenith polarimetric micropulse lidar and Ka-band Doppler radar measurements, producing an ensemble of 576 forward-simulation realizations. Sensor limitations are represented in forward space to objectively remove from consideration model grid cells with undetectable hydrometeor mixing ratios, some of which may correspond to numerical noise.Phase classification in forward space is complicated by the inability of sensors to measure ice and liquid signals distinctly. However, signatures exist in lidar–radar space such that thresholds on observables can be objectively estimated and related to hydrometeor phase. The proposed phase-classification technique leads to misclassification in fewer than 8% of hydrometeor-containing grid cells. Such misclassifications arise because, while the radar is capable of detecting mixed-phase conditions, it can mistake water- for ice-dominated layers. However, applying the same classification algorithm to forward-simulated and observed fields should generate hydrometeor-phase statistics with similar uncertainty. Alternatively, choosing to disregard how sensors define hydrometeor phase leads to frequency of occurrence discrepancies of up to 40%. So, while hydrometeor-phase maps determined in forward space are very different from model "reality" they capture the information sensors can provide and thereby enable objective model evaluation.

Lamer, K.↗

Comparisons of Cloud In-Situ Microphysical Properties of Deep Convective Clouds to Appendix D/P using Data from the HAIC-HIWC and HIWC-RADAR I Flight Campaigns

In-situ cloud data from three international flight campaigns are compared to the Federal Aviation Administration Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 33 Appendix D mixed-phase/glaciated environmental envelope, and the corresponding identical European Aviation Safety Agency CS-25 Appendix P envelope. The appendices consist of a temperature-altitude envelope, a 99th percentile total water content envelope at the 17.4 Nm distance scale, a distance factor for estimation at other distance scales, ice crystal median mass diameter, and recommended liquid water content levels in mixed-phase icing conditions. The data were collected during 54 flights out of one subtropical and two tropical locations, with 472 runs from about 17,000’ to 39,000’ in approximately 115 clouds. The campaigns provide about 29,600 Nm of in situ data in deep convection over four targeted temperature intervals: -10, -30, -40, and -50, all ± 5 C. The dataset is a modern and unique documentation of the ice crystal icing environment, and results described in this article will contribute to regulatory and industry assessment of Appendices D and P.

Ice Crystal Icing↗

Analysis of 2015 Winter In-Flight Icing Case Studies with Ground-Based Remote Sensing Systems Compared to In-Situ SLW Sondes

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) have developed an icing remote sensing technology that has demonstrated skill at detecting and classifying icing hazards in a vertical column above an instrumented ground station. This technology has recently been extended to provide volumetric coverage surrounding an airport. Building on the existing vertical pointing system, the new method for providing volumetric coverage utilizes a vertical pointing cloud radar, a multi-frequency microwave radiometer with azimuth and elevation pointing, and a NEXRAD radar. The new terminal area icing remote sensing system processes the data streams from these instruments to derive temperature, liquid water content, and cloud droplet size for each examined point in space. These data are then combined to ultimately provide icing hazard classification along defined approach paths into an airport. To date, statistical comparisons of the vertical profiling technology have been made to Pilot Reports and Icing Forecast Products. With the extension into relatively large area coverage and the output of microphysical properties in addition to icing severity, the use of these comparators is not appropriate and a more rigorous assessment is required. NASA conducted a field campaign during the early months of 2015 to develop a database to enable the assessment of the new terminal area icing remote sensing system and further refinement of terminal area icing weather information technologies in general. In addition to the ground-based remote sensors listed earlier, in-situ icing environment measurements by weather balloons were performed to produce a comprehensive comparison database. Balloon data gathered consisted of temperature, humidity, pressure, super-cooled liquid water content, and 3-D position with time. Comparison data plots of weather balloon and remote measurements, weather balloon flight paths, bulk comparisons of integrated liquid water content and icing cloud extent agreement, and terminal-area hazard displays are presented. Discussions of agreement quality and paths for future development are also included.

aviation meteorology↗

Effect of Ice and Frost Formations on Drag of NACA 65(sub 1) -212 Airfoil for Various Modes of Thermal Ice Protection

The effects of primary and. runback icing and frost formations on the drag of an 8-foot-chord NACA 651-212 airfoil section were investigated over a range of angles of attack from 20 to 80 and airspeeds up to 260 miles per hour for icing conditions with liquid-water contents ranging from 0.25 to 1.4 grams per cubic meter and datum air temperatures of -30 to 30 F. The results showed that glaze-ice formations, either primary or runback, on the upper surface near the leading edge of the airfoil caused large and rapid increases in drag, especially at datum air temperatures approaching 32 F and in the presence of high rates of water catch. Ice formations at lower temperatures (rime ice) did not appreciably increase the drag coefficient over the initial (standard roughness) drag coefficient. Cyclic de-icing of the primary Ice formations on the airfoil leading-edge section permitted the drag coefficient to return almost to the bare airfoil drag value. Runback icing on the lower surface did not present a serious drag problem except when heavy spanwise ridges of runback ice occurred aft of the heatable area. Frost formations caused rapid and large increases in drag with incipient stalling of the airfoil.

Gray, V. H.↗

User's guide for the Nimbus 7 Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR) CELL-ALL tape

The SMMR instrument onboard the Nimbus-7 satellite has been in operation since October 1978. It provided global coverage of passive microwave observations at 6.6, 10.7, 18, 21, and 37 GHz. The oberved brightness temperature can be used to retrieve geophysical parameters, principally sea surface temperature, atmospheric water vapor and liquid water content over oceans, sea ice concentration, and snow cover over land. The SMME CELL-ALL Tape contains earth-located calibrated brightness temperature data which have been appropriately binned into cells of various grid sizes, allowing intercomparisons of observations made at different frequencies (with corresponding different footprint sizes). This user's guide describes the operation of the instrument, the flow of the data processing the calibration procedure, and the characteristics of the calibrated brightness temperatures and how they are binned. Detailed tape specifications and lists of available data are also provided.

Cu, C. C.↗

Simulation of Fluid Flow and Collection Efficiency for an SEA Multi-element Probe

Numerical simulations of fluid flow and collection efficiency for a Science Engineering Associates (SEA) multi-element probe are presented. Simulation of the flow field was produced using the Glenn-HT Navier-Stokes solver. Three-dimensional unsteady results were produced and then time averaged for the heat transfer and collection efficiency results. Three grid densities were investigated to enable an assessment of grid dependence. Simulations were completed for free stream velocities ranging from 85-135 meters per second, and free stream total pressure of 44.8 and 93.1 kilopascals (6.5 and 13.5 pounds per square inch absolute). In addition, the effect of angle of attack and yaw were investigated by including 5 degree deviations from straight for one of the flow conditions. All but one of the cases simulated a probe in isolation (i.e. in a very large domain without any support strut). One case is included which represents a probe mounted on a support strut within a finite sized wind tunnel. Collection efficiencies were generated, using the LEWICE3D code, for four spherical particle sizes, 100, 50, 20, and 5 micron in diameter. It was observed that a reduction in velocity of about 20% occurred, for all cases, as the flow entered the shroud of the probe. The reduction in velocity within the shroud is not indicative of any error in the probe measurement accuracy. Heat transfer results are presented which agree quite well with a correlation for the circular cross section heated elements. Collection efficiency results indicate a reduction in collection efficiency as particle size is reduced. The reduction with particle size is expected, however, the results tended to be lower than the previous results generated for isolated two-dimensional elements. The deviation from the two-dimensional results is more pronounced for the smaller particles and is likely due to the reduced flow within the protective shroud. As particle size increases differences between the two-dimensional and three dimensional results become negligible. Taken as a group, the total collection efficiency of the elements including the effects of the shroud has been shown to be in the range of 0.93 to 0.99 for particles above 20 microns. The 3D model has improved the estimated collection efficiency for smaller particles where errors in previous estimates were more significant.

Water Content↗

Icing tunnel tests of a glycol-exuding porous leading edge ice protection system on a general aviation airfoil

A glycol-exuding porous leading edge ice protection system was tested. Results show that the system is very effective in preventing ice accretion (anti-ice mode) or removing ice from an airfoil. Minimum glycol flow rates required for anti-icing are a function of velocity, liquid water content in the air, ambient temperature, and droplet size. Large ice caps were removed in only a few minutes using anti-ice flow rates. It was found that the shed time is a function of the type of ice, size of the ice cap, angle of attack, and glycol flow rate. Wake survey measurements show that there is no significant drag penalty for the installation or operation of the system tested.

Kohlman, D. L.↗

Turbulent dispersion of the icing cloud from spray nozzles used in icing tunnels

To correctly simulate flight in natural icing conditions, the turbulence in an icing simulator must be as low as possible. But some turbulence is required to mix the droplets from the spray nozzles and achieve an icing cloud of uniform liquid water content. The goal for any spray system is to obtain the widest possible spray cloud with the lowest possible turbulence in the test section of a icing tunnel. This investigation reports the measurement of turbulence and the three-dimensional spread of the cloud from a single spray nozzle. The task was to determine how the air turbulence and cloud width are affected by spray bars of quite different drag coefficients, by changes in the turbulence upstream of the spray, the droplet size, and the atomizing air. An ice accretion grid, located 6.3 m downstream of the single spray nozzle, was used to measure cloud spread. Both the spray bar and the grid were located in the constant velocity test section. Three spray bar shapes were tested: the short blunt spray bar used in the NASA Lewis Icing Research Tunnel, a thin 14.6 cm chord airfoil, and a 53 cm chord NACA 0012 airfoil. At the low airspeed (56 km/hr) the ice accretion pattern was axisymmetric and was not affected by the shape of the spray bar. At the high airspeed (169 km/hr) the spread was 30 percent smaller than at the low airspeed. For the widest cloud the spray bars should be located as far upstream in the low velocity plenum of the icing tunnel. Good comparison is obtained between the cloud spread data and predicitons from a two-dimensional cloud mixing computer code using the two equation turbulence (k epsilon g) model.

Marek, C. J.↗

Vertical Structure and Ice Production Processes of Shallow Convective Postfrontal Clouds over the Southern Ocean in MARCUS. Part II: Modeling Study

Abstract Part I of this series presented a detailed overview of postfrontal mixed-phase clouds observed during the Measurements of Aerosols, Radiation, and Clouds over the Southern Ocean (MARCUS) field campaign. In Part II, we focus on a multiday (23–26 February 2018) case with the aim of understanding ice production as well as model sensitivity to ice process parameterizations using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model. The control simulation with the Predicted Particle Properties (P3) microphysics scheme underestimates the ice content and overestimates the supercooled liquid water content, contrary to the bias common in global climate models. The simulations targeted at ice production processes show negligible sensitivity to cloud droplet number concentrations. Further, neither increasing ice nuclei particle (INP) concentrations to an unrealistic level nor adjusting it to MARCUS field estimations alone guarantees more ice production in the model. However, the simulated clouds are found to be highly sensitive to the implementation of immersion freezing, the thresholding of condensation/deposition freezing initiation, and the rime splintering process. By increasing immersion freezing of cloud droplets, relaxing thresholds for condensation/deposition freezing, or removing rime splintering thresholds, the model significantly improves its performance in producing ice. The relaxation of the immersion freezing temperature threshold to the observed cloud-top temperature suggests an in-cloud seeder–feeder mechanism. The results of this work call for an increase in observations of INP, especially over the remote Southern Ocean and at relatively high temperatures, and measurements of ice particle size distributions to better constrain ice nucleating processes in models.

Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences↗

Supercooled Large Droplet Icing Flight Research Program

During the past three winters, the NASA Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field conducted icing research flights throughout the Great Lakes region to measure the characteristics of a severe icing condition having Supercooled Large Droplets (SLD). SLD was implicated in the 1994 crash of the ATR-72 commuter aircraft. This accident focused attention on the safety hazard associated with SLD, and it led the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to identify the need for a better understanding of the atmospheric characteristics of this icing condition. In response to this need, Glenn developed a cooperative icing flight research program with the FAA, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and the Atmospheric Environment Service of Canada. The primary objectives were to (1) characterize the SLD icing condition in terms of important icing-related parameters (such as cloud droplet size, cloud water content, and temperature), (2) develop and refine SLD icing weather forecast products, and (3) document and measure the effects of SLD ice accretions on aircraft performance.

Miller, Dean R.↗

Effect of Ice Formations on Section Drag of Swept NACA 63A-009 Airfoil with Partial-Span Leading-Edge Slat for Various Modes of Thermal Ice Protection

The effects of primary and runback ice formations on the section drag of a 36 deg swept NACA 63A-009 airfoil section with a partial-span leading-edge slat were studied over a range of angles of attack from 2 to 8 deg and airspeeds up to 260 miles per hour for icing conditions with liquid-water contents ranging from 0.39 to 1.23 grams per cubic meter and datum air temperatures from 10 to 25 F. The results with slat retracted showed that glaze-ice formations caused large and rapid increases in section drag coefficient and that the rate of change in section drag coefficient for the swept 63A-009 airfoil was about 2-1 times that for an unswept 651-212 airfoil. Removal of the primary ice formations by cyclic de-icing caused the drag to return almost to the bare-airfoil drag value. A comprehensive study of the slat icing and de-icing characteristics was prevented by limitations of the heating system and wake interference caused by the slat tracks and hot-gas supply duct to the slat. In general, the studies showed that icing on a thin swept airfoil will result in more detrimental aerodynamic characteristics than on a thick unswept airfoil.

VonGlahn, Uwe H.↗