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Aircraft Icing 2D: Collection Efficiency & Freezing Fraction

2D cross-section simulation of aircraft leading-edge icing: droplet trajectories through potential flow give a numerically-integrated collection-efficiency curve, and a Churchill-Bernstein convective correlation feeds a real Messinger energy balance for local rime/glaze freezing fraction.

Aerospace Engineering & Orbital Mechanics2DAdvanced60 FPS📱 Mobile-adapted⇄ 3D version

This is the 2D companion to the 3D droplet-impingement sim: the same leading-edge icing physics, computed independently in the plane where it actually happens. Thousands of droplet trajectories are integrated through potential flow around the leading-edge cylinder and counted by impact angle to build a genuine numerical collection-efficiency curve β(φ) — the same limiting-trajectory method used by real icing codes — instead of reading it off a formula. A Churchill–Bernstein convective correlation and a per-angle Messinger energy balance then decide, bin by bin, how much of the caught water freezes on contact versus runs back, so the rime/glaze split and the runback "horns" emerge from the same heat-and-mass accounting used in engineering icing analysis.

⚙ Under the hood

Integrate thousands of droplet trajectories through potential flow around a leading-edge cylinder to build a real numerical collection-efficiency curve, then watch a Churchill-Bernstein convective correlation and a per-angle Messinger energy balance decide, bin by bin, whether the caught water freezes as rime or runs back as horned glaze ice.

aerodynamicsicingfluid-dynamicsaerospace-engineeringdroplet-physicsheat-transfer

2D · HTML5 Canvas 2D · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install