arXiv subjects

Brett Bornhoft

Publications and source records attributed to Brett Bornhoft.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

LES of Droplet Impingement: Application to Clean and Laser-Scanned Ice Shapes

The prediction of aircraft icing is conventionally performed using multishot simulation frameworks that fail to predict the progressive roughening of the ice surface. To understand roughness formation, we investigate droplet impingement on clean and laser-scanned rough ice shapes using a high-fidelity computational framework based on wall-modeled large-eddy simulations and Lagrangian particle tracking. This methodology is validated against experimental data for a NACA 23012 airfoil and a NACA 64A008 swept tail, accurately predicting collection efficiency and supercooled large droplet splashing. The framework is subsequently applied to laser-scanned rime ice geometries to quantify the impact of surface roughness on local impingement distributions. The results reveal that physical roughness induces a highly nonuniform collection efficiency, with droplet impingement intensely concentrated on upstream-faces of roughness elements, creating sheltered shadow zones immediately downstream. While the spanwise-averaged collection efficiency remains remarkably similar to that of an equivalent smooth body, idealized smooth surfaces completely suppress these localized impingement peaks. Ice accretion simulations demonstrate that this localized impingement creates a self-reinforcing feedback loop, actively amplifying existing roughness features over time. These findings provide a direct physical explanation for the formation of characteristic rime ice structures and highlight the critical role of local surface topology in the accretion process.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2025

Large eddy simulations of conjugate heat transfer in boundary layers over laser-scanned ice roughness

Accurate modeling of ice accretion is important for safe and efficient design of aircraft and wind turbine systems. Heat transfer predictions obtained from fluid flow solvers are used as input in ice accretion codes. In glaze ice conditions, freezing rates and resulting ice shapes are highly sensitive to input values of the heat transfer coefficient. Hence, accurate prediction of heat transfer on iced airfoils is crucial for correctly predicting the ice accretion process. In this study, we perform conjugate heat transfer (CHT) simulations using wall-modeled large-eddy simulation (WMLES) over surfaces characterized by ice roughness. The results show that WMLES with CHT accurately captures surface temperature distributions and heat fluxes across a range of roughness geometries. For cases considered, large roughness-to-boundary-layer thickness ratios disrupt outer-layer similarity, leading to substantial errors in estimating equivalent sandgrain roughness when applying traditional empirical models based on surface statistics. The simulations further show that local heat fluxes vary significantly across roughness elements due to low thermal conductivity of the solid; in particular, roughness crests exhibit reduced fluxes in contrast to slopes and valleys. Notably, as roughness height increases, wall heat flux at the crest diminishes, even leading to heat flux reversal in some cases, where thermal energy is transferred from fluid to solid. These effects are not captured in isothermal wall simulations, which overestimate the Stanton number, especially at roughness peaks. By enabling calculation of Stanton number using heat flux distributions, not directly available in experiments, the present simulations augment experimental results and highlight the importance of including solid conduction effects for accurately modeling heat transfer over rough, low-conductivity surfaces such as ice.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2023

Large-eddy simulations of the NACA23012 airfoil with laser-scanned ice shapes

In this study, five ice shapes generated at NASA Glenn's Icing Research Tunnel (IRT) are simulated at multiple angles of attack (Broeren et al., J. of Aircraft, 2018). These geometries target different icing environments, both early-time and longer-duration glaze and rime ice exposure events, including a geometry that results from using a thermal ice-protection system. Using the laser-scanned geometries, detailed representations of the three-dimensional ice geometries are resolved on the grid and simulated using wall-modeled LES. Integrated loads (lift, drag, and moment coefficients) and pressure distributions are compared against experimental measurements in both clean and iced conditions for several angles of attack in both pre-and post-stall regions. The relevant comparisons to the experimental results show that qualitative and acceptable quantitative agreement with the data is observed across all geometries. Glaze ice formations exhibit larger and highly nonuniform ice features, such as `horns', in contrast to rime ice formations characterized by smaller, uniformly distributed roughness elements. In wall-modeled LES, it was observed that larger roughness scales in the glaze ice that trigger transition can be accurately resolved. Therefore, it is possible for WMLES to accurately capture the aerodynamics of glaze ice shapes without the need for additional modeling. In contrast, rime ice geometries required additional resolution to accurately represent the aerodynamic loads. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of the wall-modeled LES technique in simulating the complex aerodynamic effects of iced airfoils, providing valuable insights for aircraft design in icing environments and highlighting the importance of accurately representing ice geometries and roughness scales in simulations.

physics.flu-dyn↗