Numerical simulation of ice accretion phenomena on rotor blade of axial blower

Ice accretion is the phenomenon that super-cooled water droplets impinge and accrete on a body. It is well known that ice accretion on blades and airfoils leads to performance degradation and severe accidents. For this reason, experimental investigations have been carried out using flight tests or icing tunnels. However, it is too expensive, dangerous, and difficult to set actual icing conditions. Hence, computational fluid dynamics is useful to predict ice accretion. A rotor blade is one of jet engine components where ice accretes. Therefore, the authors focus on the ice accretion on a rotor blade in this study. Three-dimensional icing phenomena on the rotor blade of a commercial axial blower are computed here, and ice accretion on the rotor blade is numerically investigated.