PZT Beamforming for De-icing Purposes

Inhalt:
Ice accretions represent a serious threat for aviation safety, due their potentially dramatic impact onto the functionality of vital parts of the aircraft (wing, control surfaces, engine,…). Since from the beginning of the aviation, dedicated protection systems have been developed with the aim of mitigating ice related risks. The complexity of the physical phenomenon, the growing necessity of extending the operational range of the aircraft and the impact of the protection systems on the overall aircraft design economy, paved the way to multidisciplinary approaches to better comprehend the principles at the basis of the ice accretions and to develop more and more efficient protection systems. Within this scenario and in the frame of the Project of GAINS (Clean Sky 2), the development of a piezo based de-icing system is faced. To further reduce the already low power consumption, a specific piezo multichannel beamforming strategy is explored. The paper at hand illustrates this approach, identifying the most important design parameters and highlighting the advantages potentially achievable.