Optimization via FENSAP-ICE of Aircraft Hot-Air Anti-Icing Systems

This paper presents a methodology for the optimization of hot-bleed-air anti-icing systems, known as Piccolo tubes. Such systems are widely used to anti-ice the wings of many commercial aircrafts, ranging from regional to wide-body jet aircrafts. Having identified the most critical in-flight icing conditions, as well as any anti-icing system constraints as inputs, the ideal aim is to achieve fully-evaporative conditions over the heated surfaces. To do so, an optimization method based on three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics, reduced-order models, and genetic algorithms was constructed to determine the optimal geometric configuration of the Piccolo tube (jet angles, spacing of jets, and distance from leading edge). The external and internal airflows are computed using the finite element Navier–Stokes applications package (FENSAP-ICE). The methodology leads to significantly-improved configurations for threeto five-dimensional design spaces.