Abstract: Carbon fiber composites have the characteristics of high specific modulus and high specific strength. Under the development trend of lightweight and low energy consumption of aircraft, the electrothermal anti-icing system based on carbon fiber composites has a wide application prospect. To reduce the power consumption of the electrothermal anti-icing system of carbon fiber composites, an optimization method of electrothermal power distribution based on differential evolution algorithm is proposed for the carbon fiber composite skin with anisotropic thermal conductivity characteristics. The coordinate transformation method is introduced to calculate the anisotropic heat conduction process in the carbon fiber composite airfoil skin, and an analytical model of the electrothermal anti-icing system coupled with anisotropic heat conduction and runback water model of carbon fiber composite is established. An optimization framework based on the differential evolution algorithm and the coupled electrothermal anti-icing model is established to realize the optimization process of the power distribution of the electrothermal anti-icing system. The optimization results for the electrothermal anti-icing system with multi-layer structure show that the optimization framework can optimize the power distribution of the electrothermal anti-icing system. When icing conditions are the same, the optimized power consumption required to ensure anti-icing performance is reduced by 8%. In the power distribution design of an electrothermal anti-icing system, to ensure anti-icing performance while minimizing energy consumption, the power distribution can be adjusted by lowering the surface temperature in areas with high convective heat transfer coefficients to reduce heat loss, while raising the surface temperature in areas with low convective heat transfer coefficients to ensure sufficient evaporation of impinging water.

Key words: Electrothermal anti-icing, Differential evolutionary algorithm, Carbon fiber composite, Anisotropic heat transfer, Power optimization