Effect of liquid size on vertical liquid bridge freezing

Abstract

Liquid bridge solidification has important applications in industry. In this paper, the solidification process of vertical axisymmetric liquid bridges between two horizontal discs is numerically simulated with the effects of supercooling and gravity. The mathematical model consists of two parts: one is to use the equivalent heat capacity method to obtain the thermophysical properties and ice mass fraction of the liquid bridge after recalescence, and the other is to solve the Young-Laplace equation to obtain the geometric profile of liquid bridge. The simulated results of freezing front evolution and freezing time are in good agreement with the experiment. It is found that there are two dramatical temperature drops during the freezing process, respectively, corresponding to the initial freezing and the complete freezing of the liquid bridge. Higher disc temperature, larger liquid volume or higher liquid bridge decreases the temperature cooling rate and the development of freezing front height, thus prolonging the freezing time. A correlation is established for estimating the freezing time with the use of simulation results. The disc temperature and the liquid bridge height show more significant influence on the freezing process than the liquid bridge volume.