Marine Icing Sensor with Phase Discrimination

In this paper, a novel approach is presented to the measurement of marine icing phenomena under the presence of a two-phase condition. We have developed a sensor consisting of an electrostatic array and a signal processing based on a decision tree method. A three-element electrostatic array is employed to derive signals having linearly decoupled characteristics from which two key parameters, ice and water accretion layer dimension, can be determined for the purpose of environmental monitoring. The quantified characteristics revealed a correlation with the ice layer thickness in spite of the strong influence from the top water phase layer. The decision tree model established a relationship between the signal characteristics and the two accretion thickness parameters of water and ice layer. Through experimental verification, it has been observed that our sensor array in combination with the decision tree model based signal processing provides a simple practical solution to the challenging field of a two phase composition measurement such as in the marine icing considered in this study.