Behavior of Spherical Ice Particle in Flowing Supercooled Water

Numerical calculation of behavior of a spherical ice particle (motion, melting and solidification) in flowing supercooled water inside a cooled circular tube was performed. By assuming that the single ice particle moved from its position on the upper or lower cooling surface in fully developed laminar flow, the variation of ice particle radius during the moving process could be calculated under various Reynolds numbers for water, initial ice particle radii and cooling conditions. For the particle motion in flowing water, the numerical results were in good agreement with the measurements obtained from visualization using paraffin particles (density : 926 kg/m3). It was found that the initial ice particle radius, Reynolds number of water and the cooling wall temperature exerted pronounced effects on the ice particle radius at the tube exit ; however the inlet temperature of the flowing water had little effect on the radius at the tube exit.