variavel0=<b>Mateus Frois Santa Catarina</b> - Mateusfrois@aol.com Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica
<b>Olympio Achilles de Faria Mello</b> - oamello@directnet.com.br Centro Técnico Aeroespacial
<b>Nide Geraldo do Couto Ramos Fico Júnior</b> - nide@aer.ita.br Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica
<b>Abstract.</b> This work analyzes ice accretion over airfoils using a computational approach. Under certain meteorological conditions, clouds contain super-cooled water droplets, that is, liquid water at temperatures below freezing. An airplane flying through such clouds is subjected to the collision between these droplets and its frontal surfaces, such as wing leading edge, empennages and engine air intakes. When such collisions occur, those droplets - or a portion of them - freeze and accumulate, which changes the shapes of the airplane surfaces. This change causes a degradation in aerodynamic performance. In order to simulate the ice growth, a computer program has been developed which computes the flow field, determines the droplets` trajectories, their points of impact and the ice accretion over the airfoil. The flow field is determined using a panel method potential solution, without boundary layer corrections. In the determination of the ice accretion, only mass balance has been considered.
<b>Keywords.</b> ice accretion over aircraft, weather effects on aircraft, flight safety.