Experimental investigation on the effect of air temperature on the anti-frosting effect of wire mesh based on space radiation

There is a method of anti-frosting by placing a wire mesh in the direction of incoming flow on a cold surface. This method of anti-frosting has the advantage of low cost and simplicity of steps, but there is a lack of specific quantitative analysis of the wire mesh's ability to anti-frosting. To analyze the effect of air temperature on the effect of wire mesh anti-frosting, five outdoor air temperatures, −5.4 °C, −4.3 °C, −3.2 °C, −2.2 °C, and −1.8 °C, are used for comparison experiments. The results show that the effect of air temperature on wire mesh anti-frosting is nonlinear in terms of the average frost layer thickness and frost layer growth rate. At 5,400 s, when the air temperature was −1.8 °C, −2.2 °C, −3.2 °C, −4.3 °C, and −5.4 °C, the average frost layer thickness with wire mesh region decreases by 78.48%, 3.88%, 46.35%, 13.66%, and 31.90%. The wire mesh anti-frosting efficiency decreases and then stabilizes as the air temperature decreases. After placing the wire mesh, the frost mass per square meter of the cold plate surface decreases by 78.38%, 53.39%, 29.78%, 37.72%, and 31.28 %. The results help to complement quantitative analyses of the anti-frosting effect of wire mesh and provide insight into the frosting process on surfaces with porous structures.