A numerical and experimental study of wavy ice structure in a parallel plate channel

Abstract

The paper presents a numerical model for predicting steady-state ice formation inside a cooled, parallel plate channel. The study takes into account the strong interactions occuring between the turbulent flow, the shape of the ice and the heat transfer at the ice-water interface, which lead to the formation of wavy ice layers. The presented model is found to be able to predict realistic variations of the ice layer thickness for a wide range of Reynolds numbers and cooling parameters. The numerical results were verified by comparing with own measurements and good agreement was found.