Experimental and Modeling Research on the Impact and Freezing of a Supercooled Water Droplet

Impact and freezing of a supercooled water droplet widely exists in macroscopic icing/frost process. The impact and freezing processes of water droplets at room temperature and supercooled state are compared experimentally. A numerical model is established to simulate the impact and freezing of a supercooled water droplet, and the effects of Weber number and contact angle on the impact and freezing process are investigated. The results indicate that the impact and freezing process of a supercooled water droplet yields a larger equilibrium spreading factor compared with this of a droplet at room temperature. With the increases of the supercooling degree and Weber number and the decrease of the contact angle, the differences between impact and freezing process of a supercooled water droplet and the impact process of a droplet at room temperature on the temporal droplet profile and spreading factor become more conspicuous.