A Fiber-Optic Solution to Aircraft Icing Detection and Measurement Problem

Aviation industry has a serious problem with ice, which forms on the aircraft that could endanger the crew and vehicle. To solve this problem, fiber-optic technology is employed to present a novel ice detection and measurement system. Comparing with existing ice detection system, this system does not require the measurement of ambient air temperature and liquid water content to determine icing condition. Instead, it detects the ice thickness and its rate directly. Moreover, this detection system also handles the problem of flush installation. As an application of the ice measurement technology, an experiment platform was set up. Performance results achieved demonstrate that the fiber-optic ice detection and measurement system has the potential to become a critical tool in addressing in-flight icing problem.