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

飞机结冰是寒冷天气下飞机运行最严重的天气灾害之一。机身表面结冰会使飞机无法控制地翻滚或倾斜，甚至导致坠毁。虽然已经开发了许多用于飞机结冰缓解的系统，但目前的防/除冰策略存在各种缺点，包括过于复杂、太重或消耗太多功率而无法有效。解决这些问题的一个有希望的方法是利用等离子体驱动飞机防/除冰操作。该项目的主要目的是研究等离子体放电与与冰增积过程有关的不同物质（即空气、水和冰）相互作用的基本物理学，以制定一类新的飞机减冰战略。该项目还将包括重要的教育活动，包括一个多年的研究生/本科生研究项目，开发新的教学模块，以及一个面向当地K-12学生的外展项目，特别是那些来自STEM领域代表性不足的群体的学生，以激励他们参与科学和工程研究。本研究的目的是对介质阻挡放电（DBD）等离子体驱动对冰动态吸积过程中耦合非定常传热传质的影响进行基础性研究。研究任务包括：1)开展与飞机结冰现象相关的低温环境下DBD等离子体驱动热力学特性的基础研究；2)研究DBD等离子体放电与液态水和固体冰之间的动态相互作用，以进一步了解基本机制；3)表征了DBD等离子体驱动对增冰翼型/机翼表面非定常传热传质耦合的影响；4)探索/优化设计范式，开发创新、有效、基于dbd等离子体的飞机防冰/除冰策略。与传统的防冰/除冰方法相比，基于dbd等离子体的防冰/除冰方法具有显著的优势，包括：1)加热机制更高效；Ii)更快的响应时间；防/除冰操作的运行功耗更低。这项研究将大大提高我们对重要的微物理热/质量传输过程的理解，这可能导致开发一种新型的基于dbd等离子体的反/除冰策略，以确保飞机在寒冷天气下更安全、更有效地运行。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.