NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF TWO-DIMENSIONAL HEAT TRANSFER IN COMPOSITE BODIES WITH APPLICATION TO DE-ICING OF AIRCRAFT COMPONENTS

Transient, numerical, simulations of the de-icing of composite aircraft components by electrothermal heating have been performed in a two-dimensional rectangular geometry. The implicit Crank-Nicolson formulation was used to insure stability of the finite-difference heat conduction equations and the phase change in the ice layer was simulated using the Enthalpy method. The Gauss-Seidel point iterative method was used to solve the system of difference equations. Numerical solutions illustrating de-icer performance for various composite aircraft structures and environmental conditions are presented. Comparisons are made with previous studies. The simulation can also be used to solve a variety of other heat conduction problems involving composite bodies.