A Fundamental Study Toward Innovative Plasma-Based Anti-/De-icing Strategies for Aircraft Icing Mitigation

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Aircraft icing is one of the most serious weather hazards to aircraft operation in cold weathers. Ice accretion over airframe surfaces can make the aircraft to roll or pitch uncontrollably, and even cause crashes. While a number of systems have been developed for aircraft icing mitigation, current anti-/de-icing strategies suffer from various drawbacks, including being too complex, too heavy or draw too much power to be effective. One promising method to resolve these issues is to utilize plasma actuation for aircraft anti-/de-icing operation. The principal aim of this project is to investigate the underlying physics of plasma discharges interacting with different substances (i.e., air, water and ice) associated with ice accretion process for the development of a new class of strategies for aircraft icing mitigation. The project will also encompass significant educational activities, including a multi-year graduate/undergraduate research program, development of new teaching modules, and an outreach program for local K-12 students, especially those from groups underrepresented in STEM fields, to inspire them to participate in science and engineering studies.The goal of this proposed research is to conduct a fundamental study to characterize the effects of Dielectric-Barrier-Discharge (DBD) plasma actuation on the coupled unsteady heat and mass transfer during the dynamic ice accretion process. The research tasks include: 1) conduct a fundamental study to characterize the thermodynamic characteristics of DBD plasma actuations under frozen-cold ambient temperatures pertinent to aircraft icing phenomena; 2) examine dynamic interactions between DBD plasma discharges with liquid water and solid ice to gain further insights into the fundamental mechanisms; 3) characterize the effects of the DBD plasma actuation on the coupled unsteady heat and mass transfer over ice accreting airfoil/wing surfaces; 4) explore/optimize design paradigms for the development of innovative, effective, DBD-plasma-based anti-/de-icing strategies for aircraft icing mitigation. In comparison with conventional anti-/de-icing methods, DBD-plasma-based anti-/de-icing approach could have significant advantages, including i) more efficient heating mechanism; ii) faster response time; and iii) lower operation power consumption for anti-/de-icing operation. The research would significantly improve our understanding about the important micro-physical thermal/mass transport processes, which could lead to the development of a new class of DBD-plasma-based, anti-/de-icing strategies to ensure safer and more efficient aircraft operation in cold weathers.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.