Session: 04-04: Integrated Smart Systems

Paper Number: 91089

91089 - Integrated Piezoceramic Sensors for Local Ice Detection 

Icing is an important issue for aviation. Icing conditions are still a threat for parts of aviation. Since de-icing and anti-icing costs a lot of energy, which has to be provided by the aircraft, it would be beneficial to minimize the time in which the system is switched on and with that the amount of energy that is needed for the system. In order to do that, different piezo based icing sensors have been developed and proposed. This paper presents an overview of two piezo based systems for ice detection.

The first one is based on the impedance response of the aircraft structure, which is measured by the piezo system. The nature of the system is such, that the sensor element and the structure become a unity. The high level of integration is presented for an example application of a helicopter. Dedicated icing tests have taken place to validate the sensitivity of the sensor to measure the thickness of the ice on the outside of the structure in dependence of the temperature. Also, the sensitivity for different ice types such as rime and glace ice is presented.

The second approach is the use of guided waves for ice detection. Such systems use dedicated piezoelectric transmitters and receivers, which analyze the disturbance of the waves along the way. Dedicated algorithms indicate the accretion of ice on the structure. Also, in this second approach the degree of integration is rather high.

The paper will present the theory as well as the testing of both approaches in different icing wind tunnels and draw a conclusion on the effectiveness of the systems.

Presenting Author: Johannes Riemenschneider DLR