Heat Transfer and Temperature Analysis of an Aeroengine Strut Under Icing Conditions

Ice accretion on the inlet of an aeroengine could adversely affect the characteristics of the flowfield into the engine and degrade the engine's performance. When the accrued ice sheds, the portion sucked into the engine could induce serious damage. One method to reduce hazards caused by in-flight icing is an anti-icing system that uses hot lubricating oil from the engine rather than using hot air. This method not only decreases the amount of anti-icing hot air required but also cools the lubrication oil. This paper presents a computational study of the temperature distribution of an aeroengine strut under icing conditions. The flowfield around the strut is simulated using a computational fluid dynamics code. The trajectories of the supercooled water droplets are calculated through the Lagrangian approach after the computation of the air flowfield. A statistical approach is employed to calculate the local collection coefficient on the strut surface. The coupling effects of heat transfer and mass transfer are considered in the temperature calculation of the strut studied. The thermal model takes both the mass balance of water and energy balance on the surface of the strut into account. The convection heat transfer coefficients on the surface of the strut are obtained through two methods: correlation equations and computational fluid dynamics calculations. Finally, comparisons between the computational results and the experimental data are presented. The computational fluid dynamics prediction of the surface temperature of the strut shows satisfactory agreement with the experimental data.