Development of a capacitive ice sensor to measure ice growth in a real time

This paper presents the development of the capacitive sensor to measure the growth of ice on a fuel pipe surface in a real time. The ice sensor is consisted of the pairs of electrodes to detect the change of the capacitance and the thermocouple temperature sensor to examine ice formation situation. In addition, an environmental chamber is specially designed to control humidity and temperature to simulate the ice formation conditions. From the humidity, water film is formed on the ice sensor, which results in the increase in capacitance. The ice nucleation occurs, followed by the rapid formation of the frost ice to decrease the capacitance suddenly. The capacitance is saturated. The developed ice sensor explains the ice growth with the information of the icing temperature in a real time.