Experimental and Numerical Investigations on Effects of Ice Position on Turbulent Flow and Drag Coefficient of an Airfoil

The formation of ice on the surface of a wing is a common phenomenon when airplanes flies at high altitudes. In this study, the effect of ice position on the surface of a NACA 0015 airfoil on the flow field around it have been investigated by using numerical and experimental methods. For this purpose, a model of ice was placed on the surface of the airfoil at various positions and the wake of airfoil was investigated at four angles of attack 0, 5, 10, 15 at Re =120000. Drag coefficient has been achieved by using the momentum difference method by hotwire measurements. Furthermore, two-dimensional numerical simulations were performed with Fluent software. The numerical result was found in good agreement with the experimental results. The results show that the position of ice from leading to trailing edge will increase the drag coefficient and growing angle of attack amplifies the effect of ice. Flow visualization is revealed that the flow separates and vortices are occurred at ice positions where the vortices in the downstream of ice generate low pressure fields. The dissimilarity between the upstraem high-pressure and the downstream low pressure of the ice causes extra drag.