Atmospheric in-flight icing imposes a significant hazard for the operation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The objective of this chapter is to highlight the special challenges of icing computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling on UAVs compared to manned aircraft. For simulations, the largest difference is in the low Reynolds number regime that UAVs typically operate in. Furthermore, the chapter outlines the main differences in icing-related challenges between unmanned and manned aircraft. This is shown in a study highlighting the effects of chord length and air speed on ice shapes and aerodynamic icing penalties. The results show that UAVs, which are smaller and fly slower compared to manned aircraft, are more vulnerable to icing. Furthermore, this chapter includes examples and validation cases for three key aspects of icing CFD: ice shape prediction, aerodynamic icing penalties, and ice protection systems. The results overall suggest that icing CFD is well suited to be used for solving engineering tasks related to icing on UAVs. However, gaps still exist, especially concerning validation and the availability of experimental data.


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    Title :

    Numerical Simulation of In-Flight Icing of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles


    Contributors:

    Published in:

    Publication date :

    2023-12-12


    Size :

    43 pages




    Type of media :

    Article/Chapter (Book)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English





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