Abstract
Frost is found in nature as a symphony of nucleation and heat and mass transport, cascading from angstroms to several meters. Here, we use laser-induced fluorescence microscopy to investigate the pattern formation of frost growth in experiments which tune the mesoscopic length scale by using microstructured pillar arrays as a frost condenser surface. By controlling the degree of surface supercooling and the amount of condensate, different modes of frost patterning are uncovered, ranging from complete surface coverage to fractal-looking and limited-coverage structures of spiky appearance.
Highlights
Condensation frosting is the process of frost formation on partially wettable surfaces
To summarize, tuning the relative humidity produces different modes of spreading; in between the two cases of droplets fully interconnected by frost bridges and pure diffusion driven growth, we find a mixture of both modes, which exhibits fractal-like properties
The set-point temperature is a direct proxy for the frost patch nucleus formation which is limited by the energy barrier
Summary
Condensation frosting is the process of frost formation on partially wettable surfaces. Spreading evolves in one of two possible modes where the ratio of droplet diameter to interdroplet spacing is pivotal: If droplets are sufficiently large and distributed densely, frost propagates fast via connecting frost bridges. Droplets evaporate entirely before interdroplet frost bridges can connect them (i.e., dry zones form) [9] In this second case, frost grows solely via diffusion without droplet freezing, similar to snowflakes in clouds [10]. Frost grows solely via diffusion without droplet freezing, similar to snowflakes in clouds [10] Which of these two spreading modes applies is determined by isolated droplet-to-droplet interactions which are fully characterized in one dimension [11,12,13]. The number and size of frost patches can be tuned by surface temperature
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