When flying in certain weather conditions, tiny droplets of frozen water floating in the air can pose a hazard to the aircraft. If left unchecked, these water droplets can accumulate as ice on the aircraft and pose a safety hazard.
But NASA software tools like the Glenn Icing Computational Environment (GlennICE) are working to keep passengers and pilots safe.
NASA has developed GlennICE, a new NASA codeto transform the way we study, understand and prevent ice formation on aircraft wings and engines, as well as on control surfaces such as rudders and elevators.
Thanks to decades world-class NASA researchEngineers across the country can now use GlennICE to design aircraft so that ice formation is either rare or poses very little risk.
GlennICE, named after NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, is part of NASA's effort to provide the aviation industry with computing tools, including design software, to improve aircraft safety and enable innovation. NASA computer codes for icing research and modeling have become an industry standard over the past few decades. And GlennICE builds on this work by performing high-tech digital simulations of water and ice particles in virtually any atmospheric condition you can imagine.
With updated capabilities and a streamlined user interface, GlennICE will enable users to advance the state of the art, especially for researchers working on the complex, unusual designs of future aircraft.
“Legacy codes are well formulated for simulating traditional tubular-wing aircraft,” said Christopher Porter, head of development at GlennICE. “But now we have new vehicles with new designs that pose challenges for icing research. This requires better instrumentation, and that's where GlennICE comes in.”
So far, dozens of industry partners, as well as other government agencies, have begun using GlennICE, which is available on NASA Software Catalog.
Even though GlennICE is based on legacy NASA codes like LEWICE 3D, it is a completely different game. The new set of tools can be tailored to unique situations and is compatible with other software tools. In other words, it is easier to customize and takes researchers much less time to install and use.
This simplified process, along with a more advanced ability to simulate icing, allows GlennICE to easily implement 21st century concepts such as supersonic aircraft, advanced air mobility drones and other aircraft, unconventional wing shapes, open rotor turbofan engine designs, or new configurations for conventional aircraft such as radar domes.
But how does this modeling process work?
“Imagine an airplane flying through a cloud,” Porter said. “Some of these water and ice droplets make it onto the plane, and some don't. GlennICE simulates those droplets and determines exactly where they will end up, both on and off the plane.”
When these water droplets hit the plane, they attach, freeze, and begin to collect more droplets that do the same thing. The software models exactly where this will happen and what shape the ice will take over time.
“We're dealing not only with the airplane, but also with the physics of air and water,” Porter said.
Because it is designed to model droplets, the researchers have expressed interest in using GlennICE to model other conditions involving sand and ash. These substances, when introduced into aircraft engines, can pose distinct risks that aircraft engineers work to prevent.
Icing research is fundamental to aviation safety, and NASA plays a key role in making ice-free flights safer for pilots and passengers. For example, the agency's wind tunnels have world-class icing research capabilities not typically found in aeronautics research.
Combined with wind tunnel testing, GlennICE offers researchers a comprehensive set of capabilities. While wind tunnels can validate and validate data using real-world models and conditions, tools like GlennICE can fill research gaps that are not easily achieved with wind tunnels.
“Some of the conditions we need to test in are impractical for wind tunnels due to the required tunnel size and complex physics,” Porter said. “But with GlennICE we can do these tests digitally. For example, we can simulate all the icing conditions specified in the new regulations.”
GlennICE's development falls under NASA's Transformative Aeronautics Concept and Advanced Aircraft programs. These programs helped GlennICE continue NASA's work developing computational tools for aerospace design. More information about the history of icing research at NASA can be found at agency website.
