TRAILING WIRE ANTENNA ICING

ISCE ACCUMULATION ON THE TRAILING WIRE ANTENNA WILL CHANGE ITS AERODYNAMIC TOW CHARACTERISTICS. IN GENERAL, IT CAUSES INCREASED DRAG, CHANGES THE DEPLOYED WIRE SHAPE AND CAN AFFECT THE DYNAMIC STABILITY OF THE CABLE. IF ICE BUILD-UP IS NOT CONTROLLED, IT CAN LEAD TO TENSION FAILURE OF THE WIRE AND/OR ALTER THE ELECTROMAGNETIC PERFORMANCE OF THE ANTENNA. THE PROBLEM IS PARTICULARLY SEVERE IN MARINE ENVIRONMENTS AND FOR MISSIONS REQUIRING A CONTINUOUS AIRCRAFT BANKING TURN SINCE THIS POTENTIALLY PROLONGS EXPOSURE TO SUPERCOOLED CLOUDS. THE PRIMARY THRUST OF THE PROPOSED PROGRAM IS TO DEVELOP A COMPUTATIONAL FRAMEWORK THAT PROPERLY ACCOUNTS FOR THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ICE ACCUMULATION ON THE TRAILING WIRE AND THE WIRE TOWING DYNAMICS. VARIOUS TECHNIQUES FOR CONTROLLING ICE FORMATION WILL BE EVALUATED. EXPERIMENTAL PLANS WILL BE DEVELOPED TO DEMONSTRATE THE VALIDITY OF THE ANALYTICAL TOOLS AND THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ICE BUILDUP CONTROL TECHNIQUES.