Study and Validation of an Electrical Anti-Ice Integrated System for Carbon Fiber Leading Edge Airplane Wing Section

In this work, the design and optimization of a system, compatible with aircraft structure, able to prevent ice formation is presented. The system developed is focused on flat and curved (with representative leading edge profile) specimens based on ten plies of carbon fiber material which are produced with several heating wires embedded to induce the temperature raise on their external surface, avoiding the ice formation. Due to their multiple advantages (lightweight, passive devices, and multiplexability above all), Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors are the best candidate to be installed among the carbon fiber plies, providing temperature monitoring, without affecting the final structure. To validate the system, both specimens are subjected to an electrical characterization, ensuring the wires isolation within the carbon fiber plies, and to temperature raise experimental tests with the aim to validate the employment of FBG sensors for temperature monitoring, compared with a thermal imager. Finally, 1000 temperature cycles measurements are reported in which each temperature raise, and its following decrease, is extrapolated by means of the FBG interrogation system. With the results obtained, the proposed anti-ice system paves the way to a carbon fiber panel with FBG sensors embedded in the structure, constantly monitoring parameters as temperature and relative humidity, acting in proactive way, by switching the power system avoiding the ice growing on the aircraft wings.