High-fidelity methods for the prediction of ice debris trajectories

Abstract

Ice release is of concern to aircraft manufacturers due to the potential damage that the ice debris can cause on aircraft components. This raises the need for accurate ice trajectory simulation tools to support pre-design, design and certification phases while improving cost efficiency. High-fidelity models involve fully coupled time-accurate aerodynamic and flight mechanics simulations and thus require the use of emerging simulation tools, such as approaches based on immersed boundary methods or chimera grids. In this paper, the developments of current simulations tools for ice block trajectories performed in the scope of the recently completed research project STORM are described and validated against a STORM experimental data base of trajectories created by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in collaboration with the German-Dutch Wind Tunnel foundation.