CIRA, the Italian Aerospace Research Centre, is a non-profit shareholding consortium founded in July 1984. The main shareholders are ASI (Italian Space Agency), CNR (National Research Council), Consorzio ASI/Regione Campania and the main Italian aerospace industries. Yearly operation costs are partly covered by government contributions. CIRA operates according to the guidelines provided by the Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR). The Italian government has entrusted CIRA to manage the PRORA (Italian Aerospace Research Programme). CIRA operates one of the largest icing wind tunnels in the world and therefore has a long and consolidate expertise in icing numerical and experimental simulation. As a member of the Association of European Research Establishments in Aeronautics (EREA), CIRA works in close co-operation with major European Aerospace Research Establishments.

Role in the project

CIRA will contribute mainly in improvement of numerical and experimental simulation tools for ice accretion.
CIRA will be involved in assessment and consolidation of instrumentation to be used for liquid icing conditions (WP4) and in improvement of SLD test capabilities (WP6). Both tasks will allow the improvement of CIRA Icing Wind tunnel facility with specific reference to SLD conditions extending the capabilities already acquired in the previous related EU funded project EXTICE. Thanks to the facility calibration procedure and envelope expansion that will be obtained as result of WP4 and WP6 activities, CIRA will strongly contribute to the development of an icing experimental data-base in SLD conditions by performing tests in WP10. The experimental dataset will be used to validate the numerical tools improved in WP11.