Inflight ice detector to distinguish supercooled large droplet (SLD) icing

The ice detector of claim 3, and a circuit connected to each of the probes to determine ice accumulation on the probes.

An ice detector assembly supported in a fluid stream carrying supercooled water droplets, the supercooled water droplets ranging in size and including droplets that are large droplets, a first ice detector probe mounted to be part of the ice detector assembly in a position to collect a range of small and large supercooled water droplets, a second ice detector probe mounted to be part of the ice detector assembly and configured with the ice detector assembly such that as the number or large droplets in the airflow increases, the rate of ice accretion on the second probe increases relative to the first probe.

An ice detector assembly supported in a fluid stream carrying supercooled water droplets and flowing relative to the ice detector assembly, the supercooled water droplets ranging in size and including droplets that are larger than other droplets, a first ice detector probe mounted on the ice detector assembly in substantially free stream conditions, a flow guide on the ice detector assembly, a second ice detector probe mounted on the ice detector assembly and associated with the flow guide such that the flow guide separates small droplets from the fluid stream striking the second ice detector probe without substantially affecting small droplets in the fluid striking the first ice detector probe.

An ice detector assembly comprising a support in a fluid stream, a pair of ice detector probes mounted on said support, said ice detector probes having curved upstream facing wall portions and extending generally parallel to each other outwardly from a surface into the fluid stream, one of said ice detector probes being configured as part of the ice detector assembly such that large droplets of supercooled water impinging on said one of said ice detector probes form a greater portion of total supercooled droplets impinging on the one probe than the portion of large supercooled liquid droplets of total supercooled droplets impinging on the other of said ice detector probes.

A method of determining presence of large supercooled water droplets in an airflow having supercooled water droplets of a range of sizes, the supercooled droplets causing ice accretion on surfaces on which the supercooled droplets impinge, the method comprising providing two ice detector probes, configuring one of the probes such that inertial separation of droplets in the fluid causes a greater proportion of large supercooled droplets to impinge on one of the probes than the proportion of large supercooled water droplets impinging on the other probe relative to total supercooled droplets in the airflow, and determining the ratio of the rate of change of ice accretion on the two ice detector probes to detect presence of large supercooled water droplets in the airflow.