Investigation of ice accretion effects on aerodynamic performance of NACA 2415 airfoil at low reynolds number

This thesis examines the effects of three distinct ice accumulations on the aerodynamic performance of the NACA 2415 airfoil. A brief discussion is provided of icing environments, icing types and the icing effects on the airfoil and also on the aircraft components. Besides, some necessary information is provided for icing prevention (anti-icing) and de-icing techniques. The experiments are carried out for the base airfoil as well as glaze, rime, and horn ice accumulated airfoils at Re=1.2×105. For this study, force and velocity measurements are taken. Additionally, the oil and smoke-wire flow visualization techniques are also performed. The selected range of angle of attack for force measurements is defined as -7° to 23°. Additionally, considering the results of force measurements, seven distinct angles of attack values including 0°, 4°, 8°, 13°, 14°, 17° and 20° are chosen for velocity measurements and flow visualization experiments. Results showed that, CLmax of ice accreted airfoils are decreased as expected. 20%, 23% and 88% of decrease in maximum lift coefficient is observed in the GIA, RIA and HIA models, respectively. An increase in drag coefficients at α = 0° for the GIA, RIA and HIA airfoils is observed to be around 14%, 4% and 307%, respectively. A sudden increase in lift coefficient of the GIA airfoil is observed at post-stall. Moreover, a double-peak behavior is noted for the GIA, RIA airfoil and also for base airfoil in velocity measurements.