Numerical Simulation Model of Electrothermal De-Icing Process on Composite Substrate

Abstract A numerical simulation model of electrothermal de-icing process on carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite is conducted to study the effect of thermal properties of the substrate on the ice melting process. A novel melting model which is based on the enthalpy-porosity method is applied to study the transient ice melting process and heat transfer of the de-icing sys-tem. Multi-layered electrothermal de-icing systems including composites with different fiber orientation are used to analyze the effects of orthotropic heat conductivity of the CFRP composite on the ice melting process and heat transfer. Movement of the ice-water interface, the melted zone thickness and the melted zone area on CFRP composite are investigated on the three-dimensional electrothermal de-icing unit. The effects of thermal properties of substrate on the temperature distribution of the ice-airfoil interface are analyzed. The computational results show that the thermal properties of substrates affect the temperature on the ice-airfoil interface, the temperature distribution in the substrate, ice melting area, ice melting rate and ice melting volume significantly. The time that ice starts to melt on the CFRP composite substrate is earlier than that on the metal substrate. However, it takes more time for the ice to melt completely on the ice-CFRP interface than that on the ice-metal inter-face. The orthotropic heat conductivity of CFRP composite results in strong directivity of the melting area on the ice-CFRP in-terface. A ratio parameter is defined to represent the matching degree of substrate materials and geometry model of de-icing system. The simulation model can be applied to study electrothermal de-icing system of nacelle inlet and airfoil made of composite. The results in present work is also helpful to predict the change of temperature during de-icing process and provide guidelines for the optimizing the electrothermal de-icing system to reduce power consumption according to the fiber structure of composite.