Novel Droplet Accelerator for Aircraft Icing Research

Aircraft icing occurs when clouds of supercooled water droplets strike and freeze on various parts of an aircraft. This ice formation poses significant hazards to aviation. A crucial factor in determining the size and shape of the ice is the liquid water content (LWC), which measure the mass of water per unit volume of air. Various probes, such as hot-wire probes, have been developed to measure LWC. However, these measurements are influenced by aerodynamic, splashing, and evaporative efficiencies. Conducting fundamental experiments to investigate these phenomena is challenging due to the small sizes and high speeds of the droplets involved.



Researchers at NASA Glenn Research Center have developed a novel droplet accelerator designed to accelerate droplets of relevant sizes to velocities relevant to aircraft icing. The droplets do not atomize or deform. High-speed cameras have been used to accurately determine the droplets’ size and velocity. This technology is now being utilized to conduct probe research and may have other potential applications. Preliminary computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations have been performed, offering possible explanations for the operation of this device.