Active Control of Freezing of Supercooled Water by Ultrasonic Vibration.

Abstract

A method to actively control the supercooling of water is one of the critical issues for cold-energy storage systems utilizing ice slurry. We experimentally studied the use of ultrasonic vibration to control the phase change from supercooled water to ice. Ultrasonic vibration of varying intensity was applied to water at different degrees of supercooling and we examined whether or not the supercooled water was frozen on a heat transfer surface. The experimental results indicate that ultrasonic vibration strongly promotes the freezing of supercooled water, for both pure water and tap water. Furthermore, we found that ultrasonic vibration is also effective for making ice slurry.