VIRTUAL ICE ACCRETION METER DISPLAY

• US 20110226904A1
• Filed: 03/15/2011
• Published: 09/22/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/17/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation (Martin Marietta Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation (Martin Marietta Corporation)
• Inventors: Flemming, Robert James
• Granted Patent: US 8,779,945 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 244/134.F
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 15/20 Means for detecting icing or initiating de-icing
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 23/005 Flight directors indicating arrangements specially adapted for rotary gyroscopes G01C19/32

Abstract

A flight display for an aircraft includes a virtual ice accretion meter having a liquid water content portion and an ice thickness portion. A method for determining ice accretion includes integrating over a time period a constant K multiplied by a liquid water content (LWC) and true airspeed (TAS).

Claims

1. A flight display for an aircraft, comprising:

a virtual ice accretion meter display having a liquid water content portion and an ice thickness portion.

2. The flight display as recited in claim 1, further comprising a liquid water content (LWC) meter display adjacent to said virtual ice accretion meter display.

3. The flight display as recited in claim 1, further comprising an engine torque display adjacent to said virtual ice accretion meter display.

4. The flight display as recited in claim 1, wherein said ice thickness portion includes a numeric value which represents ice thickness.

5. The flight display as recited in claim 4, wherein said numeric value is color coded with respect to the ice thickness.

6. A method for determining ice accretion on an aircraft component comprising:

integrating over a time period a constant K multiplied by a liquid water content (LWC) multiplied by true airspeed (TAS) to virtually determine an ice accretion thickness value; and

displaying the ice accretion thickness value.

7. A method as recited in claim 6, further comprising:

displaying the ice accretion thickness value as a numeric value which represents an ice thickness on the aircraft component.

8. A method as recited in claim 7, further comprising:

color coding the numeric value with respect to the ice thickness.

9. A method as recited in claim 6, further comprising:

determining the constant K for a particular aircraft component.

10. A method as recited in claim 9 wherein the aircraft component is a rotor blade.

11. A method as recited in claim 9 wherein the aircraft component is an engine inlet.

12. A method as recited in claim 6, further comprising:

resetting the time period.