Research Facilities

AMIL’s extensive research facilities consist of 5 walking cold chambers and 2 wind tunnels able to simulate a wide variety of freezing and frozen precipitation at temperatures as low as -45°C under certain conditions.

All

Wind Tunnel

This wind tunnel is used to simulate aircraft take-off in cold temperatures ranging from 0° to -45°C. It is used specifically to qualify anti-icing and deicing fluids used in aviation according to SAE AS5900.

WSET Chamber (3M)

This refrigerated chamber simulates freezing fog. It is used for freezing fog endurance testing as per SAE AS5901.

Icing test section dimensions: 1.9 m x 1.9 m x 3.3 m

Air temperature control: +10°C to -30°C

4M Chamber

This refrigerated chamber simulates freezing drizzle for testing small- and medium-sized objects. It contains the centrifuge for measuring ice adhesion.

Icing test section dimensions: 2.4 m x 1.5 m x 4.3 m

Air temperature control: +10°C to -30°C

Snow Chamber

This refrigerated chamber simulates snowstorms and freezing drizzle so researchers can study how these conditions affect a variety of medium-sized and large objects. It is used to simulate airport runway tests.

Snow test section dimensions: 5 m x 5 m x 4.3 m

Air temperature control: +10°C to -40°C with freezing precipitation

9M Chamber

This refrigerated chamber simulates precipitation such as freezing rain and ice pellets that can be applied to medium- and large-scale structures such as cables, bridge sections, aircraft, and drones.

Icing test section dimensions: 2 m x 2 m x 9.1 m

Air temperature control: +10°C to -35°C

Anti-Chamber

This chamber simulates frost and is mainly used to qualify fluids according to SAE AS5901.

Snow test section dimensions 5.5 m x 2.4 m x 3.7 m

Air temperature control +10°C to -30°C

Project Icing Wind Tunnel

This closed-loop icing wind tunnel simulates in-flight icing using a ramp equipped with nine sprinklers. It can produce median volumetric diameter (MVD) values ranging from 20 µm to 100 µm, liquid water content (LWC) from 0.1 g/m³ to 3.0 g/m³, and temperature from 0 °C to -30 °C with freezing precipitation.

A cold chamber surrounding the test section can simulate various types of freezing precipitation.

Three available test sections:

1) 0.5 m x 0.6 m with wind speed up to 100 m/s

2) 0.91 m x 0.76 m with wind speed up to 50 m/s

3) 0.9 mm diameter with wind speed up to 50 m/s