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During aircraft design and certification, in-flight ice accretions are simulated using ice prediction codes. LEWICE, the ice accretion prediction code developed by NASA, employs a time-stepping procedure coupled with a thermodynamic model to calculate the location, size and shape of an ice accretion. LEWICE has been extensively validated for a wide range of icing conditions. However, continuing improvements to LEWICE predictive capabilities require better understandings of 1) the fundamental physics of turbulent flow generated by ice accretion roughness during an icing event and 2) the mechanisms responsible for convective enhancement of real ice accretion roughness. Recent experiments in the Icing Research Tunnel (IRT) at NASA Glenn Research Center have enabled significant insights into the nature of ice accretion roughness spatial and temporal variations.

Changes in convection coefficient caused by the changes in surface roughness characteristics along an iced NACA 0012 airfoil were investigated in the 61-cm by 61-cm (24 in. by 24 in.) Baylor Subsonic Wind Tunnel using a 91.4-cm (36-in.) long heated aerodynamic test plate and infrared thermometry. A foam insert was constructed and installed on the wind tunnel ceiling to create flow acceleration along the test plate replicating the scaled flow acceleration the along the leading 17.1% (3.6 in.) of a 53.3-cm (21-in.) NACA 0012 airfoil. Two sets of rough surface panels were constructed for the study, and each surface used the same basic random droplet pattern created using the Lagrangian droplet simulator of Tecson and McClain (2013). For the first surface, the roughness pattern was replicated with the same geometry over the plate following a smooth-to-rough transition location noted in historical literature for the case being replicated.