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Effect of changing hot-wire temperature on SEA Ice Crystal Detector

From National Research Council Canada

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DOIResolve DOI: https://doi.org/10.4224/40003516
AuthorSearch for: 1ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-9835-4074; Search for: 1ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3923-1589; Search for: 1ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5780-8500
Affiliation
  1. National Research Council of Canada. Aerospace
FormatText, Technical Report
Physical description17 p.
SubjectICD; LWC; TWC; AIWT; Convair; ice crystal detector; water content
Abstract
The Science Engineering and Associates (SEA) Ice Crystal Detector (ICD) is an aircraft mounted hot-wire probe used to measure the bulk water content of clouds. The probe uses two wires, in concave and convex elements, which are heated to a constant temperature and evaporate cloud hydrometeors on contact. Generally, these wires are heated to 140◦C and the impact of other temperature settings has not previously been investigated. This work reports on tests performed at the National Research Council’s Altitude Icing Wind Tunnel in order to investigate how the probe measurements differ when the wire set temperature is varied from 20◦C to 160◦C, depending on the ambient conditions. It was found that the probe is able to operate with wire temperatures ranging from 80◦C to 160◦C. However, the calculated power loss due to convection must be modified in order to account for the temperature of the deicing heater on the probe. Since the deicing element is larger than the hot-wires, it requires more time to heat up to its set temperature of 50◦C, which was not considered in this study. It is recommended that measurements with the ICD include a plan to mitigate the impact of the deicing element.
Publication date
PublisherNational Research Council of Canada
Licence
Series
  • Laboratory Technical Report (National Research Council of Canada. Flight Research Laboratory), no. LTR-FRL-2025-0092 (9 June 2025).
Related publication
  • Fleury, Liam, Natalia Bliankinshtein, Leonid Nichman, Kenny Bala, and Mengistu Wolde. ‘Characterization of NRC Convair-580 Hot-Wire Probes Performance Using NRC AIWT’. National Research Council of Canada. Aerospace, 18 January 2023. https://doi.org/10.4224/40003273.
  • Esposito, Biagio M., David Orchard, Johannes Lucke, Leonid Nichman, Natalia Bliankinshtein, Lyle Lilie, Pietro Catalano, Francesco D’Aniello, and J. Walter Strapp. ‘Comparability of Hot-Wire Estimates of Liquid Water Content in SLD Conditions’. SAE Technical Paper Series, 15 June 2023. https://doi.org/10.4271/2023-01-1423.
LanguageEnglish
Peer reviewedNo
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Record identifier9fe87e96-7150-44c7-aa2f-290119005208
Record created2025-07-05
Record modified2025-07-28
Date modified: