A distributed aircraft ice detection method based on φ-OTDR system and FBG array

Aircraft icing poses a serious threat to flight safety. In response to the problem of limited sensing range and susceptibility to external interference of traditional ice sensors, a distributed aircraft ice detection method based on phase-sensitive optical time-domain reflectometer (φ-OTDR) system and fiber Bragg grating (FBG) array is proposed, in which a mapping relation between wing vibration frequency and its icing state is established. Experiments have shown that the system can effectively measure vibration signal of piezoelectric transducer (PZT) with a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) over 51.58 dB. In a wind icing tunnel, an experiment of a complete icing and de-icing process on a wing model was conducted, which shows that by measuring the vibration frequency of the wing model, its icing state can be detected.