Numerical Study of Atmospheric Ice Accretion on Various Geometric Cross-Sections

Abstract

This paper describes the numerical study of atmospheric ice accretion on four different geometric cross sections, circular, parabola, triangle and cube. Most structures are the combination of these four basic geometric cross sections. Understanding of the atmospheric ice accretion physics on these will provide a base for further analyses of ice accretion and its effects on complex structures. CFD based numerical analyses are carried out in this research work to understand the rate and shape of atmospheric ice growth on these cross sections. For constant wind speed and atmospheric temperature, the ice growth is simulated as function of time, where more ice accretion is found on cube as compared to three other cross sections. Parametric study to understand the effect of iced surface roughness showed a significant difference in ice growth, when compared with the case, where no surface roughness was assumed on the cross sections.