Meggitt has introduced an advanced ice protection system at the show that meets commercial and regulatory pressures to cut aircraft fuel burn and emissions. The UK company says the system will use 50% less energy than traditional power-hungry bleed-air systems.
Improvements featured in the new Electro-Thermal Ice Protection (ETIP) are achieved by clever management of electrical power through proprietary control algorithms that react to flight conditions indicated by, for example, true airspeed, temperature and ice severity.
This enables the smart system to apply exactly the right amount of power for the aircraft to manage icing conditions and to control acceptable ice accretion and shedding — on wings, tails, rotors and nacelles inlets.
Ian Noble, Meggitt Thermal Systems’ head of strategic sales and marketing says: “Traditional bleed air ice protection systems, while effective, can do two things. They are usually on or off, so control is very limited. You cannot vary locally where and when to apply heat so energy goes to waste. With our next generation system, which is based on adaptive control, we can provide the right power, in the right place, for the right condition.”
The Meggitt system integrates de-ice, anti-ice and runback control features. Typically, the system’s approach to anti-ice involves a fully evaporative upper surface to counter “run-back”, which can lead to the dangerous reforming of melted ice, and there is a basic level of protection through continuous heating of the ‘splitter strip’ that runs along the leading edge of the wing.
Energy savings are made by varying the intensity of heat across additional zones on the upper surface of the wing depending on the severity of the icing environment. On the wing underside, the de-icing function involves switching heat on and off in a continuous cycle across further discrete zones.
Source: Flight International
