Additively Manufactured Air Data Probe Heaters for Ice Protection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing air data probes face challenges in efficiently arranging and installing heaters due to manufacturing limitations, which affect heat distribution and maintenance, especially in critical icing conditions.
Innovation Solution
Additively manufactured heaters with varied Watt densities, parallel paths, and redundant configurations are applied to air data probes, allowing for precise heat distribution and easier installation, repair, and maintenance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If traditional manufacturing methods are used for heaters in air data probes, then heater installation and arrangement become difficult, but manufacturing precision and heat distribution control are limited
Solution Approach 1:
The heater is designed with spatially varying Watt densities, where different regions of the heater provide different amounts of heat based on the specific thermal requirements of each probe region. This allows precise heat distribution control while maintaining ease of manufacture through additive manufacturing processes that can directly create complex, non-uniform heating patterns.
2Reliability
If heaters are arranged to provide adequate heat in all regions, then ice protection is improved, but heat distribution efficiency decreases due to uniform heating in areas that don't require it
Solution Approach 1:
The heater incorporates region-specific Watt density variations that match the thermal requirements of different probe areas. Critical regions requiring ice protection receive higher heat flux, while less critical regions receive reduced heating, thereby maintaining reliable ice protection overall while minimizing energy waste in areas that don't require intensive heating.
3Manufacturing precision
If complex heater configurations are used to achieve precise heat distribution, then heat application accuracy is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces complex mechanical heater assembly and arrangement processes with additive manufacturing technology. This allows precise heat distribution patterns to be directly manufactured as integral parts of the probe structure, eliminating the need for complex separate heater components and their associated installation complexity while maintaining high heat application accuracy.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution enhances heat distribution efficiency, reduces installation and maintenance costs, and improves performance by tailoring heat application to specific probe regions, preventing ice accretion and performance degradation.
Implementation Method 1
additively manufactured heaters with varied Watt densities, parallel paths, and redundant configurations are applied to air data probes
Data Source
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AI summary
An air data probe (10;26;42) includes an air data probe body (12;28;44) and an additively manufactured heater (100-900) on the air data probe body.