SAE’s International Conference on Icing of Aircraft, Engines, and Structures is the must-attend event for professionals involved in any aspect of aircraft or engine architecture and design, flight operations, research & innovation, ground and flight tests, icing certification, or ground operations - including airlines, airports, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and suppliers (source: SAE International).

Presentation of the SENS4ICE technologies and testing activities

The 2^nd symposium of the SENS4ICE project was an integral part of the SAE’s Icing Conference which took place on 20-22 June 2023 in Vienna, Austria.

Four conference sessions were dedicated to SENS4ICE:

• Environmental Icing Meteorology (SLD) and Ice Crystals: SENS4ICE Ice Detection Technologies, Part 1 and Part 2.
• Environmental Icing Meteorology (SLD) and Ice Crystals: SENS4ICE Icing Wind Tunnel Testing.
• Environmental Icing Meteorology (SLD) and Ice Crystals: SENS4ICE Atmospheric Physics and Meteorology.

Whereas the following presentations highlighted the SENS4ICE achievements:

• Hybrid Ice Detection System Development and Validation presented by Annagrazia Orazzo (Safran Aerosystems)
• Design and Testing of an Indirect Ice Detection Methodology by presented Christoph Deiler (German Aerospace Center - DLR)
• Development and Validation Testing of the Collins Ice Differentiator System in App C and App O Icing Conditions presented by Matthew Hamman (Collins Aerospace)
• Development of the Atmospheric Icing Patch (AIP) under the SENS4ICE Programme presented by Ian Roberts (AeroTex UK)
• Icing Condition Optical Sensor presented by Vladimir Hamada (Honeywell International SRO)
• In-Flight Icing Condition Detection using an On-Board Sensor Measuring the Aircraft Electrostatic Potential presented by Rafael Sousa Martins (ONERA)
• Wind Tunnel and Flight Testing of a Lamb Wave Based Ice Accretion Sensor presented by Martin Pohl (German Aerospace Center -  DLR)
• INTA Fiber Optic Detector presented by Miguel Gonzalez del Val (Instituto Nacional de Tecnica Aeroespacial – INTA)
• Overview of Cloud Microphysical Measurements during the SENS4ICE Airborne Test Campaigns: Contrasting Icing Frequencies from Climatological Data to First Results from Airborne Observations presented by Tina Jurkat-Witschas (German Aerospace Center - DLR)
• Overview on the Meteorological Conditions During the SENS4ICE Airborne Test Campaigns presented by Olivier Jaron (CNRS, Météo-France)
• Characterization of Atmospheric Icing Conditions during the HALO-(AC)3 Campaign with the Nevzorov Probe and the Backscatter Cloud Probe with Polarization Detection presented by Johannes Reinhard Lucke (German Aerospace Center - DLR)
• A Tool for Remote Detection and Nowcasting of In-Flight Icing Using Satellite Data presented by Alessandra Lucia Zollo (Italian Aerospace Research Center – CIRA)
• Icing Wind Tunnel Testing for App C and App O Icing Conditions presented by Matthew Hamman (Collins Aerospace)

The direct exchange between industry experts, researchers and end-users at this event was further stimulated by the interesting viewpoints of the keynote speakers and chairpersons.

Support from the European Commission

SENS4ICE was represented with a dedicated overview presentation in a special session devoted to "Horizon 2020: EU Collaborative Research & Innovation at CINEA: Safer Aviation in Icing Conditions".

CINEA (European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency) is an executive agency of the European Commission. It implements Green Deal programmes such as Connecting Europe Facility, Innovation Fund and Horizon 2020 / Horizon Europe. This includes Transport Research and Innovation, such as low-TRL Aviation and Aviation Safety collaborative projects.

This session was moderated by Hugues Felix (Project Manager for Aviation at CINEA) who introduced the outstanding aviation projects SENS4ICE, MUSIC-haic and ICE GENESIS. All three have contributed to advancing icing knowledge, testing and systems. One of the significant numbers is the major support provided by the EU: the three projects have obtained 22 million EUR of EU grants.

As an introduction to the technologies developed under SENS4ICE, project coordinator Carsten Schwarz from the German Aerospace Center (DLR) presented the project objectives:

• Increase flight safety in icing conditions and especially for the SLD conditions thanks to the hybridisation of different detection techniques.
• Contribute to increasing the knowledge base on the formation and occurrence of App. O conditions via technology development, validation, maturation as well as testing in icing wind tunnels and in flight.

"Icing occurs in air and on ground, whereas it is particularly dangerous in flight. Supercooled water droplets in air, freezing at aircraft surfaces, may lead to degradation or loss of aircraft control. Some of the icing effects consist of a reduced flight performance and a change of the dynamic of the aircraft behaviour. Nevertheless, simulation of icing effects on aircraft behaviour is difficult and validating models is a challenging task” this is how Carsten Schwarz summarised the context that had led the consortium partners to get onboard of the SENS4ICE project in 2019.

"It has been a long and busy week at the SAE International Icing Conference in Vienna. It was good to catch-up with friends from across the industry, and find out all the latest developments in the small but growing world of icing" said Ian Roberts from the SME partner of SENS4ICE AeroTex UK who presented the company's work under SENS4ICE as well as other programmes such as Clean Aviation.

Outlook

SAE’s Icing Conference was an ideal framework for presenting and discussing the recent SENS4ICE project results with the global icing community including industry, research/academia and regulators.

The SENS4ICE partnership would like to thank all attendees, presenters, keynote speakers, representatives from the European Commission and especially the SAE conference organising committee for making this event a great success.

SENS4ICE contributions to the conference included 14 presentations and 7 publications. All the presentations and publications will be available soon on the project website and in the SENS4ICE community of the open access repository Zenodo.