Investigation of water impingement on a multi-element high-lift airfoil by Lagrangian and Eulerian approach

McDonnell Douglas Aerospace (MDA) high-lift model is widely used in the study of multi-element airfoil, while there is still short knowledge of ice accretion and water impingement on it. In this paper, based on two-phase flow theory, two numerical models were presented by using both Eulerian approach and Lagrangian approach, respectively, in order to predict the water impingement efficiency on a two-dimensional (2D) multi-element high-lift airfoil. Both computational results were validated with the experiment data, which shown good agreements in the impingement limitations and tendency. The trend that how the attack angle and droplet diameter affect the feather of local water impingement characteristics on the different elements of MDA were further investigated. As shown in this research, the trends that the local impingement intensity and extent on flap of MDA varied differently as in general understanding due to the complex structures of flow field, which should be careful cognized in design of the ice protection system.