Numerical Simulation of In-Flight Icing by Coupled Immersed Boundary and Level-Set Methods

In-Flight ice accretion is modeled using the Level-Set novel approach. The Level-Set method alleviates concerns of complex remeshing in concurrent ice models used by the industry. It allows the simulation of very complex ice forms with all difficult topographies, namely coalescing interfaces or severely separating ones. The Level- Set method allows a straightforward multi-step simulation. The solid boundary is treated in different methods, implicitly or explicitly. The solid part, wing and ice, is defined via a characteristic level-set function in the former case, and the interface is defined as a list of Lagrangian points in the latter. Therefore, the air flow boundary conditions are applied through the turbulence modeled at the wall. On the other hand, droplet transport is modeled via an IBM-LS Eulerian approach, using a discrete formulation of the interface.