Effects of Some Factors on Critical Condition of Ice Formation for Flowing Supercooled Water and Water Solution inside Cooled Circular Tube

Supercooling characteristics of water and water solution in a forced flow were investigated both experimentally and analytically. The critical conditions of ice nucleation in a cooled circular tube were examined for five sets of tube dimensions under various Reynolds numbers. It was found that the critical degree of supercooling based on the inner wall temperature was independent of Reynolds number in a laminar flow region. However, in a turbulent flow region, it decreased with increasing Reynolds number. An ice nucleation model for the flowing supercooled liquid was developed to predict the critical conditions of ice formation, in which the effects of the flow and temperature conditions, tube dimensions and solute mass fraction were taken into consideration. Nondimensional correlation equations for the critical condition of ice formation were derived in laminar and turbulent flow regions as a function of some nondimensional parameters obtained by analyzing the ice nucleation model.