Full-scale eVTOL rotor icing

Electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL) fly lower, slower and with smaller rotors than conventional helicopters, and there was little experimental data on how their rotors behave in icing. The FAA funded this project to collect that data at full scale.

I designed the tilt-table rotor stand through modelling and analysis, built the data acquisition system, and took it to an icing wind tunnel in Vienna for the test campaign. The data now serves as validation cases for eVTOL icing models and as supplementary information for the FAA in writing eVTOL icing rules.

What I did

• Designed, fabricated and tested a rotor test stand capable of spinning full-scale eVTOL blades, with a tilt table for hover and cruise conditions.
• Developed the data acquisition software and installed the hardware and supporting circuitry.
• Ran a two-week experimental campaign in the Rail Tec Arsenal icing wind tunnel in Vienna.
• Processed the performance and ice-accretion data for use as validation cases for eVTOL icing models and as input to FAA eVTOL icing regulations.