Study on the Effect of Icing Wind Tunnel Spray System Control on Liquid Water Content

Icing has a negative impact on flight safety. As an important means of studying icing problems and validating high-precision numerical simulation software for icing, icing wind tunnel tests require higher reliability and more accurate uncertainty quantification. This paper describes the experimental setup of the AVICARI FL-61 icing wind tunnel, the spray system, and its performance. The repeatability of the icing wind tunnel spray system was confirmed through tests. Experimental research was conducted on the effects of air speed, water pressure, and air pressure on LWC, with results showing that LWC exhibits an approximately linear relationship with the logarithm of air speed, is proportional to the number of nozzles, and demonstrates an approximately linear relationship with the logarithm of water pressure. In the fitted formula for LWC and water pressure, air pressure exhibits an approximate linear relationship with the intercept term in the formula. The experiments found that parameter fluctuations are significant during the initial stage of the spraying process, which is unfavorable for studies sensitive to the initial icing.