Two-dimensional numerical simulation of the rime accretion process on transition lines

Based on the Lagrange method, a 2-D icing model is introduced to simulate the rime accretion process on transmission lines. The governing equations for the airflow, i.e., the unsteady incompressible RANS equations and the SST-k-ω turbulent model, are solved by the semi-implicit method for pressure linked equations (SIMPLE) on a collocated grid. The Local Collision Efficiency (LCE), one important parameter of the icing model, is evaluated on the basis of time-dependent airflow computations and water droplet trajectory calculations. The model computes the thermodynamic conditions and the icing rate as a function of the angle around the cylinder using the classical Messinger equation. The results show that the proposed ice model performed well in simulating and predicting ice-grown shapes under dry icing conditions.