Experimental Study of Frost Crystals Dendrite Growth on Two Neighboring Separate Frozen Water Drops on a Cryogenic Cold Surface under Natural Convection Conditions

Fengjiao Yu, Zhongliang Liu (), Yanxia Li, Yanling Chen and Yi Li
Additional contact information
Fengjiao Yu: Key Lab of Enhanced Heat Transfer and Energy Conservation Ministry of Education, The Faculty of Environment and Life, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China
Zhongliang Liu: Key Lab of Enhanced Heat Transfer and Energy Conservation Ministry of Education, The Faculty of Environment and Life, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China
Yanxia Li: Key Lab of Enhanced Heat Transfer and Energy Conservation Ministry of Education, The Faculty of Environment and Life, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China
Yanling Chen: Key Lab of Enhanced Heat Transfer and Energy Conservation Ministry of Education, The Faculty of Environment and Life, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China
Yi Li: Key Lab of Enhanced Heat Transfer and Energy Conservation Ministry of Education, The Faculty of Environment and Life, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 4, 1-18

Abstract: The effects of cold surface temperature, wet air state (temperature and humidity) and original drop size on frost dendrites growth of two neighboring separate frozen water drops of same size under natural convection conditions were investigated by quantitative measurement. It was determined that for different cold plate surface temperature conditions, i.e., the ordinary-low temperature and the cryogenic temperature range, the frost formation mechanism is different. Under the conditions that the air temperature is not too high and absolute humidity is not too excessive, the influence of frozen water drop size on the longest dendrite of frost crystals becomes more and more obvious with the decrease in cold plate temperature. The changes in air temperature and relative humidity both change air absolute humidity, so they have similar effects on the growth of dendrites. However, the effect of wet air state on the growth of frost dendrites is not monotonous, which needs to be considered comprehensively in combination with heat and mass transfer and the existence of heavy phase layer. The thickness of ‘the initial continuous frost layer’ was measured and it was disclosed that the initial frost layer thickness is 1.7–3.0 times that of the height of the frozen water drop diameter. This value may be possibly used as initial frost layer thickness in heat and mass transfer-based frost layer growth prediction models, at least for ordinary-low temperature conditions.

Keywords: dendrite growth; frost crystal; initial frost layer thickness; cryogenic cold surface (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/4/1861/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/4/1861/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:4:p:1861-:d:1067312

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().