Experimental study on the effect of vertical surface temperature on frosting characteristics in a rotating centrifugal system

The generation and accumulation of frost layers often cause unpredictable negative effects, also in space stations and other non-gravitational environments. To deeply understand the changing law of frost characteristics in non-gravitational environments, and accurately predict and control the frosting behavior in non-inertial systems, a series of frosting experiments on vertical cold surfaces with different surface temperatures in a horizontal rotation centrifugal non-inertial system were designed and carried out. The results indicate that in the rotating non-inertial system, lower cold surface temperatures provide greater cooling capacity, which in turn affects a series of frosting characteristics. As the cold surface temperature decreases from −10 °C to −30 °C, the maximum frost layer thickness increases by 106.73 %, the peak time-dependent frosting rate increases by 166.67 %, and the surface roughness also increases substantially. In addition, when the surface temperature at −30 °C compared to the −10 °C, the maximum amplitude and the frequency of reverse melting decreased by 44.1 % and 45.1 %, respectively. This study would be used for the validation of frost modeling and as a theoretical guide for the development of defrosting and anti-frosting technologies in a non-inertial reference system.