Numerical and experimental study on the fracture and detachment of ice under electro-impulse load

Analyzing the fracture and detachment of ice under electro-impulse loads is of great significance for optimizing the load in electro-impulse de-icing (EIDI) systems. A bond-based peridynamics (BB PD) model of ice-aluminum plate is established to investigate the fracture behaviors of ice under different loads. Both ice and aluminum plate were discretized into uniformly distributed particles, and short-range repulsive forces were introduced to prevent particle penetration. A critical relationship between the interface bond stretch and the ice bond stretch are established through an interface adhesive strength constant. Experiments based on an in-house EIDI system were performed to observe de-icing process. A high-speed camera (50000fps) is used to capture the generation and propagation of ice cracks. Additionally, the ratio of ice detachment area is obtained by observing the brightness variation through the color of the ice bottom surface. Experimental results serve as the basis for selecting appropriate values for interface adhesive strength constants and critical bond stretch of ice bonds, which are then applied to numerical simulations. Mechanisms of generation and propagation of initial crack, radial crack and circumferential crack are discussed. Through both simulation and experiments, it is discovered that radial cracks followed by circumferential cracks appears centered at the location of impulse load. Ice detachment occurred along the radial cracks and extended toward the center of the ice fragment. When the load is sufficiently small, detachment still emerges even without crack generation. The results demonstrate that similar ice fracture and detachment process with respect to experiments can be predicted by the peridynamic model, which could serve as a new efficient method for the design and analysis of EIDI systems.