Optimization of a Thermal Ice Protection System by Means of a Genetic Algorithm

Ice accretion poses a major threat for performance and safety of aircraft. Electro-Thermal Ice Protection Systems (ETIPS) are a reliable and flexible alternative to protect critical parts against it. Their main drawback is the high power consumption, especially when operating in fully evaporative Anti-Ice mode. In this work, a Genetic Algorithm (GA) is deployed to optimize the heat flux distribution on the fixed heaters of a wing ETIPS that operates in Anti-Ice regime. The aim is to minimize the power consumption while ensuring safety, such that no runback ice is formed downstream the protected parts. A thermodynamic numerical model was deployed to assess runback ice formations for each layout of heat fluxes. A linear penalty method was selected to handle the constraint of no-runback ice formation. Crossover and Mutation operators for GA were investigated for a large population as well as a penalty factor. Higher penalties and Mutation-based GA presented the best optimization performance based on several runs. The optimal layout of fluxes was found to minimize as well the convective losses in several ways to increase the evaporative efficiency.