The occurrence of ice accretion within commercial high bypass aircraft turbine engines has been reported by airlines under certain atmospheric conditions. Engine anomalies have taken place at high altitudes that have been attributed to ice crystal ingestion by the engine. The ice crystals can result in degraded engine performance, loss of thrust control, compressor surge or stall, and flameout of the combustor. The Aviation Safety Program at NASA has taken on the technical challenge of a turbofan engine icing caused by ice crystals which can exist in high altitude convective clouds. The NASA engine icing project consists of an integrated approach with four concurrent and ongoing research elements, each of which feeds critical information to the next element. The project objective is to gain understanding of high altitude ice crystals by developing knowledge bases and test facilities for testing full engines and engine components. The first element is to utilize a highly instrumented aircraft to characterize the high altitude convective cloud environment. The second element is the enhancement of the Propulsion Systems Laboratory altitude test facility for gas turbine engines to include the addition of an ice crystal cloud. The third element is basic research of the fundamental physics associated with ice crystal ice accretion. The fourth and final element is the development of computational tools with the goal of simulating the effects of ice crystal ingestion on compressor and gas turbine engine performance. The NASA goal is to provide knowledge to the engine and aircraft manufacturing communities to help mitigate, or eliminate turbofan engine interruptions, engine damage, and failures due to ice crystal ingestion.
NASA Engine Icing Research Overview: Aeronautics Evaluation and Test Capabilities (AETC) Project
2015
102 pages
Report
No indication
English
Aircraft , Aircraft engines , Ice formation , Crystals , Ice , Aircraft icing , Aircraft safety , High altitude environments , Turbofan engines , Engine tests , Engine failure , Engine parts , Damage , Convection clouds , Propulsion system performance , Gas turbine engines , Performance tests , Flight safety , Simulation , Test facilities
NASA AETC Test Technology Subproject
NTRS | 2017
|Overview of NASA Aeronautics Research
NTIS | 2022
|Overview of NASA Engine Ice-Crystal Icing Research
NTIS | 2011
|