An Interdisciplinary Approach to Inflight Aircraft Icing Safety
Michael B. Bragg, William R. Perkins, Nadine B. Sarter, Tamer Basar, Petros G. Voulgaris, Holly M. Gurbacki, James W. Melody,
and Scott A. McCray
University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801
ABSTRACT
Aircraft accidents in icing conditions are primarily the results of the
degradation in performance and control due to the aerodynamic effects of
the ice. However, despite recent advances in the ability to identify
these changes, the icing sensors currently in use sense only ice thickness
or accretion rate at the sensor location. No aircraft performance
degradation information is available to the pilot. In this paper, a smart
icing system is proposed based on the ability to sense the effect of ice
on the aircraft performance, stability and control. This concept is
proposed through the addition of an Ice Management System to the aircraft.
This system would add an additional level of safety to supplement the
current avoidance and ice protection concepts currently in use. Such a
system would sense ice accretion through traditional icing sensors and use
modern system identification methods to estimate aircraft performance and
control changes. This information would be used to automatically operate
ice protection systems, provide aircraft envelope protection and, if icing
was severe, adapt the flight controls. All of this must be properly
communicated to and coordinated with the flight crew. The design of such
a system requires a coordinated interdisciplinary approach. In addition
to describing the basic concept, this paper reviews the research needed in
three critical areas; aerodynamics and flight mechanics, aircraft
controls, and human factors.