Experimental investigation of ice sublimation process on ice surface in ice rink

Abstract

Indoor artificial ice rinks often spend large amount of energy for dehumidifying the air, in order to prevent frosting and guarantee the ice quality. However, over drying in ice rinks would reverse ice sublimation which might cause loss of ice thickness and unevenness. This paper adopts experimental approaches to study the sublimation of ice in ice rinks. From the experimental result, ice sublimation velocity vary from 0.02 mm/h to 0.12 mm/h in common ice rink environment. The sublimation thickness mainly depends on ice temperature (ti), the air humtidy ratio (da) and air flow rate (va). The experimental results conducted to the relationship between sublimation rate (S) and sublimation factor (α) and the above parameters. Moreover, the empirical formula for sublimation is obtained by using the experimental conclusion, and the confidence is about 0.74. Experiment and formula could provide guidance for air humidity controlling in ice rinks. In order to prevent excessive loss of ice, Δd could be 0.7 ∼ 1.4 g/kg when the va is 1 m/s. In order to ensure uniform ice surface, this value is only 0.4 ∼ 0.7 g/kg when the air flow is relatively uniform. The calculation and analysis of sublimation and humidity threshold provide a theoretical basis for accurately controlling the ice rink environment. This would also be helpful to the design of air parameters and flow pattern on ice.