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This paper presents experimental ice accretion measurements alongside numerical simulations, using the National Research Council Canada’s morphogenetic approach, on a pitot probe geometry at varying icing conditions. In previous publications, the morphogenetic approach for the numerical simulation of ice accretion has shown promise for pitot probe applications, potentially reducing the number of wind tunnel entries, and therefore cost, of the development cycle. An experimental campaign has been completed, providing ice shapes on a representative pitot probe model. Comparison of the experimental and numerical ice shapes indicate that the morphogenetic model is able to generate the complex ice shapes seen experimentally for real-world icing conditions on a fully 3D geometry, closely matching both ice features and total ice thicknesses.

The Ice Crystal Environment Modular Axial Compressor Rig (ICE-MACR) was developed by the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) with support from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in response to the need to understand ice crystal icing of aircraft engines at high altitudes. Icing wind tunnel tests on static hardware lack some of the real physics of turbofan compressor such as centrifuging and fracturing of particles, and melting of particles due to compression heating, heat transfer through a casing wall, as well as annular geometry effects. Since the commissioning of ICE-MACR in 2019 new insights have been gained on the physics behind ice crystal icing of turbofan engines. Additionally, the results of various test campaigns have been used to validate engine ice accretion numerical codes. This paper summarizes the key insights into ICI of turbofans gained from the ICE-MACR to date.

In 2021 the Federal Aviation Administration in collaboration with the National Research Council of Canada performed research on altitude ice crystal icing of aircraft engines using the modular compressor rig, ICE-MACR, in an altitude wind tunnel. The aim of the research campaign was to address research needs related to ice crystal icing of aircraft engines outlined in FAA publication Engine Ice Crystal Icing Technology Plan with Research Needs. This paper reports the findings on ice accretion from a configuration of ICE-MACR with two compression stages. Inherent in two-stage operation is not just additional fracturing and heating by the second stage but also higher axial velocity and potentially greater centrifuging of particles. These factors influence the accretion behavior in the test article compared to single stage accretion.

As the everyday use of flying small to medium size Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) continues to evolve, so does the need to fly them in icing environments. To investigate an RPAS’ ability to fly in these conditions, an outdoor test rig has been developed at the National Research Council Canada (NRC) in which a range of RPAS have been tested in icing environments. This rig has an available test area of 3.05 m × 3.05 m, and is 5.1 m high. An array of spray nozzles installed at the top of the test rig provides a cloud that, when operated at sub-zero temperatures, enables simulation of in-flight icing conditions. The spray cloud is calibrated to provide water concentration and drop size distributions consistent with Appendix C, freezing drizzle and freezing rain conditions.

This paper presents the adhesion strength of ice on sanded and machine-finished aluminum test coupons as measured using the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) Altitude Icing Wind Tunnel (AIWT) spin rig. This rig is used to evaluate commercial and internally-developed coatings for low-adhesion properties, and the performance of ice on aluminum is required as a baseline to compare the coatings against. The tests are performed over a range of aerodynamic and icing cloud conditions, including variations in static air temperature and exposure time (and therefore accumulated ice mass). The data analysis includes an evaluation of the uncertainty in the results based on the measured ice mass repeatability and the measured shear stress repeatability.

Hazardous atmospheric icing conditions occur at sub-zero temperatures when droplets come into contact with aircraft and freeze, degrading aircraft performance and handling, introducing bias into some of the vital measurements needed for aircraft operation (e.g., air speed). Nonetheless, government regulations allow certified aircraft to fly in limited icing environments. The capability of aircraft sensors to identify all hazardous icing environments is limited. To address the current challenges in aircraft icing detection and protection, we present herein a platform designed for in-flight testing of ice protection solutions and icing detection technologies. The recently developed Platform for Ice-accretion and Coatings Tests with Ultrasonic Readings (PICTUR) was evaluated using CFD simulations and installed on the National Research Council Canada (NRC) Convair-580 aircraft that has flown in icing conditions over North East USA, during February 2022.

This paper discusses the development and implementation of a new ice crystal icing (ICI) ice adhesion test system and technique. It is based on the state of the art rotary shear adhesion test rig developed at the NRC altitude icing wind tunnel (AIWT) used for supercooled liquid water (SLW) ice accretion adhesion testing. This rig was modified to use strain gauged arms for shed force measurements and implemented into the NRC ICI cascade rig at its research altitude test facility (RATFac). This permitted the exposure to a wide range of ICI conditions both in supercooled and wetbulb below freezing ICI conditions. The result is a standalone system that can be run remotely thus improving the testing efficiency by avoiding the need for accretion calibration points previously required to correlate accreted mass to icing exposure time.

In 2017 the National Research Council of Canada developed an evaporation model for controlling engine icing tunnels in real time. The model included simplifications to allow it to update the control system once per second, including the assumption of sea level pressure in some calculations. Recently the engine icing system was required in an altitude facility requiring operation down to static temperatures of -40°C, and up to an altitude of 9.1 km (30 kft) or 30 kPa. To accommodate the larger temperature and pressure range the model was modified by removing the assumption of sea level operation and expanding the temperature range. In addition, due to the higher concentration of water vapor that can be held by the atmosphere at lower pressures, the significance of the effect of humidity on the air properties and the effect on the model was investigated.

Future compliance to FAA 14 CFR Part 25 and EASA CS-25 Appendix O conditions has required icing wind tunnels to expand their cloud simulation envelope, and demonstrate accurate calibration of liquid water content and droplet particle size distributions under these conditions. This has led to a renewed community interest in the accuracy of these calibrations, and the potential inter-facility bias due to the choice of instrumentation and processing methods. This article provides a comparison of the response of various hot-wire liquid water content instruments under Appendix C and supercooled large droplet conditions, after an independent similar analysis at other wind tunnel facilities. The instruments are being used, or are under consideration for use, by facilities collaborating in the ICE GENESIS program.

The development and calibration of a new facility to test medium size rotors for Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) under in-flight icing conditions is described. This facility has made use of a 3 m x 6 m cold room available at the NRC which includes a spray system to provide the icing cloud as well as a dedicated rotor stand assembly that incorporates a load cell and dynamometer. Calibration data of the spray drop sizes and liquid water content are provided and compared to conditions of the natural environment as detailed in icing regulations for transport category airplanes, i.e., CFR 14 Part 25 Appendix C and O. Data to examine the sensitivity of rotor performance, under a constant liquid water content to various droplet sizes are provided for a medium sized rotor. Tests have also been performed that examine the ability of the rotor to maintain predefined thrust, torque and power performance throughout an icing encounter of fixed duration.

The performance of low-adhesion surfaces in a realistic, in-flight icing environment with supercooled liquid droplets is evaluated using a NACA 0018 airfoil in the National Research Council of Canada Altitude Icing Wind Tunnel. This project was completed in collaboration with McGill University, the University of Toronto and the NRC Aerospace Manufacturing Technologies Centre in March 2022. Each collaborator used significantly different methods to produce low-adhesion surface treatments. The goal of the research program was to demonstrate if the low-adhesion surfaces reduced the energy required to de-ice or anti-ice an airfoil in an in-flight icing environment. Each collaborator had been developing their own low-adhesion surfaces, using bench tests in cold rooms and a spin rig in the wind tunnel to evaluate their performance. The most promising surface treatments were selected for testing on the airfoil.

Under contract to Transport Canada (TC) and with joint funding support from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), a vertical stabilizer common research model (VS-CRM) has been designed and built by the National Research Council of Canada (NRC). This model is a realistic, scaled representation of modern vertical stabilizer designs without being specific to a particular aircraft. The model was installed and tested in the NRC 3 m × 6 m Icing Wind Tunnel in late 2021/early 2022. Testing was led by APS Aviation Inc., with support from NRC and NASA, in order to observe the anti-icing fluids flow-off behavior with and without freezing or frozen precipitation during simulated take-off velocity profiles. The model dry-air aerodynamic properties were characterized using flow visualization tufts and boundary layer rakes. Using this data, a target baseline configuration was selected with a yaw angle equal to 0° and rudder deflection angle equal to -10°.

The National Research Council Altitude Icing Wind Tunnel liquid water content calibrations have historically relied on a 2.4 mm diameter rotating cylinder for drop sizes up to 50 μm and a 6.2 mm diameter rotating cylinder for drop sizes from 50 μm to 200 μm. This study compares the facility calibration, derived from rotating cylinder measurements, to water content measurements from the Science Engineering Associates Multi-Element Probe and the National Research Council Compact Iso-Kinetic Probe over a range of airspeeds and drop sizes. The data show where the rotating cylinder measurements may start to underestimate the liquid water content (LWC), possibly due to splashing at higher airspeeds and drop sizes. The data also show that the LWC read by the Multi-Element Probe is higher than that provided by the rotating cylinders, and the Compact Iso-Kinetic Probe (CIKP) reads higher than both other methods.

Since the introduction of ice crystal icing certification requirements [1], icing facilities have played an important role in demonstrating compliance of aircraft air data probes, engine probes, and increasingly, of turbine engines. Most sea level engine icing facilities use the freezing-out of a water spray to simulate ice crystal icing conditions encountered at altitude by an aircraft in flight. However, there are notable differences in the ice particles created by freeze-out versus those observed at altitude [2, 3, 4]. Freeze-out crystals are generally spherical as compared to altitude crystals which have variable crystalline shapes. Additionally, freeze-out particles may not completely freeze in their centres, creating a combination of super-cooled liquid and ice impacting engine hardware. An alternative method for generating ice crystals in a test facility is the grinding of ice blocks or cubes to create irregular shaped crystals.

Fuel savings from truck platooning are generally attributed to an aerodynamic drag-reduction phenomena associated with close-proximity driving. The current paper is the third in a series of papers documenting track testing of a two-truck platoon with a Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC) system where fuel savings and aerodynamics measurements were performed simultaneously. Constant-speed road-load measurements from instrumented driveshafts and on-board wind anemometry were combined with vehicle measurements to calculate the aerodynamic drag-area of the vehicles. The drag-area results are presented for each vehicle in the two-truck platoon, and the corresponding drag-area reductions are shown for a variety of conditions: gap separation distances (9 m to 87 m), lateral offsets (up to 1.3 m), dry-van and flatbed trailers, and in the presence of surrounding traffic.

The SAE G-27 committee was tasked by ICAO to develop a performance-based packaging standard for lithium batteries transported as cargo on aircraft. The standard details test criteria to qualify packages of lithium batteries & cells for transportation as cargo on-board passenger aircraft. Lithium batteries and cells have been prohibited from shipment as cargo on passenger aircraft since 2016. This paper summarizes the results of the tests conducted by Transport Canada and National Research Council Canada to support the development of this standard with evidence-based recommendations. It includes a description of the test specimens, the test set up, instrumentation used, and test procedures following the standard as drafted to date. The study considered several lithium-ion battery and cell chemistries that were tested under various proposed testing scenarios in the draft standard.

With the publication of SAE AS5562 in 2015, icing wind tunnel test facilities have upgraded their operating environments and instrumentation to meet the client demand to test to this new standard. Nearing four years of testing and development to this standard, numerous questions and challenges have arisen that industry has addressed on an individual basis but not in a common format for all. This paper addresses some of the known challenges in an effort to apply AS5562 consistently across industry and provide clarity to all users.

The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) has undergone the development of a Small Axial Compressor Rig for modelling altitude ice accretion in aircraft engines. The rig consists of two axial compressor stages measuring approximately 150mm in diameter, an extension duct to allow residence time for partial melting of ice crystals and a test piece. The axial compressor stages are intended to provide realistic engine conditioning such as fracture, pressure rise, temperature rise and centrifuging of glaciated ice crystals entering the rig. The rig was designed for use in altitude icing wind tunnels such as the NRC’s altitude icing wind tunnel (AIWT), research altitude test facility (RATFac.), and those of other organization such as NASA Glenn and Technical University of Braunshweig. Previous development work [1] provided partial validation of the aerodynamic performance of just the first compressor stage at 90% power.

Under contract to Airlines for America (A4A), APS Aviation Inc. (APS), in collaboration with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), completed an aircraft ground icing exploratory research project at the NRC 3 m × 6 m Wind Tunnel in Ottawa in January 2019. The purpose of this project was to investigate the feasibility of using aerodynamic data to evaluate the performance of contaminated anti-icing fluid, rather than the traditional visual fluid failure indicators that are used to develop Holdover Times (HOTs). The aerodynamic performance of a supercritical airfoil model with anti-icing fluids and snow contamination was evaluated against the clean, dry performance of the airfoil in order to calculate the associated aerodynamic penalty. The visual failure of the fluid was also evaluated for each run, and the visual and aerodynamic results were compared against each other for each contamination exposure time.

High altitude ice crystals are causing in-service events in excess of one per month for commercial aircraft. The effects include air data probes malfunctioning (pitot pressure and total air temperature in particular), and uncommanded engine power loss or flameout events. The National Research Council Canada (NRC) has developed a particle detection probe (PDP) that mounts on the fuselage of aircraft to sense and quantify the ice crystals in the environment. The probe is low-power and non-intrusive. This paper presents the results of ground and flight testing of this probe. Results are presented for ground testing in a sea level ice crystal wind tunnel and an altitude icing tunnel capable of generating both ice crystal and super-cooled liquid. The PDP was operated on several flight campaigns and the results of two will be presented.