Ice Layer Spreading along a Solid Substrate during Solidification of Supercooled Water: Experiments and Modeling

The
thermal influence of a solid wall on the solidification of
a sessile supercooled water drop is experimentally investigated. The
velocity of the initial ice layer propagating along the solid substrate
prior to dendritic solidification is determined from videos captured
using a high-speed video system. Experiments are performed for varying
substrate materials and liquid supercooling. In contrast to recent
studies at moderate supercooling, in the case of metallic substrates
only a weak influence of the substrate’s thermal properties
on the ice layer velocity is observed. Using the analytical solution
of the two-phase Stefan problem, a semiempirical model for the ice
layer velocity is developed. The experimental data are well described
for all supercooling levels in the entire diffusion limited solidification
regime. For higher supercooling, the model overestimates the freezing
velocity due to kinetic effects during molecular attachment at the
solid–liquid interface, which are not accounted for in the
model. The experimental findings of the present work offer a new perspective
on the design of anti-icing systems.