Investigation of runback ice phenomenon during electrothermal de-icing process and the corresponding scheme for system optimization.

Transient numerical simulation of airfoil periodic electrothermal de-icing process under typical conditions was conducted. The temperature distribution of a de-icing system was obtained by solving the coupled equations of external icing, internal heat conduction and mixed ice-water phase change. This study focuses on the runback icing problem and the corresponding solution. Different inducements to runback ice forming have been analyzed by presenting the relevant simulation results of temperature field and droplets field. Heating power and protection range of the original system have been adjusted for solving the runback ice trouble. The results indicate disappearance of runback ice after system optimization, thereby, validate the feasibility of the proposed scheme.