Search

Drones and UAVs are gaining worldwide popularity and are now considered a popular choice for both military and commercial applications. Icing poses tremendous safety and performance concerns for the operation of all types of drones. This paper is part of a project that studies icing effects on the hovering 0.66 m diameter Bell APT70 drone rotor and the development of potential ice protection systems. The objective of this paper is to investigate the use of electrothermal heaters with severe icing conditions and to characterize the energy efficiency of anti-icing or de-icing regimes. Rotor speeds of 3880, 4440 and 4950 RPM were used while two air temperatures, −5 and −12 °C, were also tested. The heat transfer profile on the blade was studied using dry run tests where the rotor operated with heating but without water spray. Anti-icing tests with variable heating power were tested to determine the location of the initial ice accumulation as well as the minimum heating power requirement to protect the leading edge. Moreover, anti-icing tests with constant heating rates were done and compared to previous tests of unprotected blades, under similar condition. On the other hand, de-icing tests with various heating cycles were also carried out. Results indicate that although de-icing requires significantly less heating energy compared to anti-icing, there is clear trade-off on rotor stable aerodynamic output, electrical power consumption and vibration levels, depending on the adopted de-icing mode. Future work is about investigating the rise of secondary effects, such as shed ice impact due to de-icing. Work is also planned for a hybrid ice protection system that combines electro-thermal heaters with icophobic or superhydrophobic coatings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new installation at the Anti-Icing Materials International Laboratory was developed to study the effects of icing on the degradation of a hovering drone rotor aerodynamic performance and to test different potential ice protection solutions. Following a study on icing parameters effects on aerodynamic performance, this paper studies a methodology developed to assess the performances of coatings as a potential ice protection system under severe icing conditions and rotor speeds up to 4950 RPM. Four different coatings, commercial or under development, were applied to the rotor blades and their effect on the resulting ice accumulation and aerodynamic degradation were measured and compared to those previously obtained on similar, uncoated blades. Results show that passive icephobic coatings in general are a promising solution to limit the negative effect of icing conditions for drone applications, without any additional energy consumption from the system. Moreover, the repeatability assessment of tests under similar conditions and for the same coating showed agreement within ±5% between repetitions, showing no signs of ice protection efficiency degradation for any of the tested coatings. • The work of this article marks the continuity of a series of studies done with a new spinning rotor drone test setup in hover flight mode performed at the 9-m high cold chamber of the Anti-Icing Materials International Laboratory (AMIL). Four different surface protection coatings are applied on their own set of blades for testing in the cold room. The resulting ice accumulation and performance degradation of the spinning rotor are then monitored, recorded and compared to the results obtained of bare uncoated blades. The effects and performances of the coatings tested are then assessed. • This report presents a new test methodology and setup to assess the performances of protective surfaces as a passive ice protection system for small and medium drone rotors, which differs than for the rotorcraft application actually found in the literature. It also presented unique results on the possibility of using those surfaces for drones, which cannot be simply deduced from rotorcraft studies found in the literature. This demonstrates the importance of this work and of this new methodology and test setup for the industry since the literature greatly lacks reported data of similar icing tests using ice protection coatings on a UAV. • This first test campaign has proven the ability of icephobic surface coatings to efficiently perform as ice protection systems. Moreover, coatings have a positive potential of being combined with an active ice protection system (such as electrothermal) as a way to reduce the power consumption of those systems. Further research will be done with additional products and also combined with active ice protection systems to help lower their power consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]