American Kestrel Company, LLC

Home

Aircraft Icing

LEWICE

LEWINT

Testing Facilities

Useful Links

The computer software LEWICE is an analytical ice accretion package that simulates the thermodynamics of the freezing process occurring when supercooled droplets impinge on a body. LEWICE was developed at then NASA Lewis , now NASA Glenn. LEWICE applies a time-stepping procedure to "grow" an ice accretion. Initially a flow field is calculated, then particle trajectories and impingements are calculated, then ice growth is calculated, the geometry is then modified and the process repeated until the length of the icing encounter is reached. LEWICE is used to determine icing impingement limits, failed deicer ice shapes, unprotected surfaces ice shapes, thermal requirements of thermal ice protection systems. LEWICE is a valuable tool when used be experienced users and combined with such validation techniques as icing wind tunnel testing and flight testing. The latest release version of LEWICE is version 3.2.2.

The above ice shape was predicted using LEWICE for the unprotected horizontal stabilizer of Piper Cherokee 6 (PA32-260). The aircraft is holding at the unrealistic speed, for a PA32, of 130 kts. Such an accumulation would result in a substantial increase in drag and reduction in lift for this surface. The horn on the upper surface act much like a full span spoiler and could produce such undesired phenomena as an elevator snatch.