Electro-Impulse De-Icing of the Leading Edge of a Slat

Leading-edge slats play a critical role in aircraft lift generation. However, their mobility and comparatively small dimensions make the integration of efficient de-icing systems particularly challenging. This study presents an integration concept for an electro-impulse de-icing system based on copper coils. The coils generate an inductive pulse that produces a localized deflection of the outer skin and initiates a wave propagating in both the spanwise and chordwise directions. The resulting shear stresses at the ice–skin interface cause the ice to detach.

The system is first implemented in a simplified demonstrator featuring constant curvature and good accessibility. Initial test campaigns focus on optimizing key parameters such as doubler thickness, capacitor voltage, and coil spacing. A high-speed digital image correlation system is employed to analyze the spatial propagation of the induced wave. Additionally, a limited fatigue test is conducted to assess the system’s operational reliability.

In the subsequent phase, the electro-impulse de-icing system is integrated into a scaled slat. To ensure optimal pulse transmission, the copper coils are shaped to match the wing contour. De-icing tests are performed using the recommended values for liquid water content (LWC) and droplet diameter (MVD) specified in NACA Technical Report 1855. The results show extensive de-icing along the leading-edge region. The de-iced surface areas are weighted according to their contribution to the lift distribution to evaluate the effectiveness of different de-icing scenarios.

The findings demonstrate that the proposed electro-impulse de-icing system is highly effective and operates significantly more efficiently than conventional electrothermal or bleed-air de-icing systems.