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ACTA AERONAUTICAET ASTRONAUTICA SINICA ›› 2023, Vol. 44 ›› Issue (12): 427872-427872.doi: 10.7527/S1000-6893.2022.27872

• Material Engineering and Mechanical Manufacturing • Previous Articles    

Development and verification of a conformal electrothermal deicing functional structure for leading edge of airfoil

Chao TANG, Wenjun XIE, Peiyu YUAN, Zonghong XIE()   

  1. School of Aeronautics and Astronautics,Sun Yat-Sen University,Shenzhen 518107,China
  • Received:2022-07-29 Revised:2022-08-17 Accepted:2022-09-20 Online:2023-06-25 Published:2022-09-30
  • Contact: Zonghong XIE E-mail:xiezongh@mail.sysu.edu.cn

Abstract:

Aiming at the problem of preventing and deicing the leading edge of aircraft wing, a lightweight, high-efficiency, low energy consumption, conformal graphene composite material for aircraft wing leading edge electrothermal deicing functional structure is designed and experimentally verified. Adopting the design scheme of integrating the graphene heating film and the composite material laminate structure, a 0.75 mm thick graphene composite material electrothermal deicing conformal heater is cured by in-situ bonding on the leading edge of the aircraft wing using the self-developed thermoforming equipment. The heating uniformity and stability of the conformal heater are verified by comparing the temperature rise of the conformal heater under room and low temperature environments with the same power density. The ice layer with controllable shape and thickness is prepared on the surface of the leading edge of the aircraft wing by an in-situ conformal icing method, and the deicing performance of the heater under different power densities is tested. Finally, a comparative analysis is made with traditional airfoil leading edge wire conformal electrothermal deicing structure. The test results show that the conformal heater has excellent quality of conformal adhesion to the leading edge of the wing, with a surface density of 0.082 7 g/cm2, rapid thermal response, stable heating performance and uniform temperature in the heating area. With the continuous increase of power density, the deicing time of the conformal heater is shortened, and the deicing effect is better. When the power density is 15 kW/m2, the bottom interface ice layer can be completely melted within 40 s. On the premise of achieving the same deicing effect, the power density required by the new electrothermal deicing structure is significantly lower than that of the traditional airfoil leading edge metal wire conformal electrothermal deicing structure. The graphene composite conformal heater based upon the leading edges of wings is a promising solution for elector-thermal deicing in terms of both good conformal and deicing effects.

Key words: elector-thermal deicing, in-situ conformal, graphene composites, wing leading edge, functional structure

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