Experimental study of melting ice cylinders in a warm air cross-flow

Abstract

An experimental study is reported which investigates the melting of ice cylinders transverse to a warm humid flow, under controlled conditions in an air-conditioned wind tunnel. This work was initiated prior to a more general study of warm air defrosting of a complete heat pump evaporator. Tests were conducted with air at various temperatures, relative humidities and velocities. Similarly, the temperature of the core tube, on which the ice cylinders were mounted, was varied by alteration of the water-glycol mixture flowing through it. Two diameters of ice cylinder, 20 and 27 mm, were used. For core temperatures below the melting point of ice, the melting rate was shown to be a strong function of air humidity and temperature. With the core temperature above 0°C, the melting process was dominated by this factor so that air conditions were relatively unimportant.