Simulation of heating control law of electro-thermal deicing of helicopter rotor blade

The work mechanism of the electro-thermal anti/deicing system is very complex as it is related to the coupled heat transfer between the electro-thermal and the external heat flux, i.e., the convective heat transfer and phase transition heat transfer, and the data available is extremely limited. In order to explore the mechanism of the heat transfer of the electro-thermal anti/deicing mode, a two-dimensional electro-thermal deicing model was established based on the Messinger model and improved enthalpy method. The heat transfer between the icing surface and air flow, phase changes of melting and icing were coupled in the current model. The control volume method was used to discretize the differential equations, and the methods of TDMA (tri-diagonal matrix algorithm) & ADI (alternating direction implicit) were used to solve the linear equations, and then the temperature distribution on the deicing surface was finally obtained as well as the heat transfer mechanism was presented. The effects of the electric heating method and the heating flux on the temperature distribution were analyzed in different icing conditions. The results show that high efficient utilization of the electro-thermal deicing system and the flight safety guarantee can be achieved by adjusting the heat flux density and distribution and the control law of heating time properly.