Jvc. Vargas et A. Bejan, FUNDAMENTALS OF ICE MAKING BY CONVECTION COOLING FOLLOWED BY CONTACT MELTING, International journal of heat and mass transfer, 38(15), 1995, pp. 2833-2841
In this paper we show that the production of ice by convection cooling
followed by contact melting can be maximized by properly selecting th
e frequency of the intermittent freezing and removal cycle. In the fir
st part of the paper, this principle is illustrated in three configura
tions: water freezing inside a tube cooled externally by convection, f
reezing on the outside of a tube cooled internally by convection, and
freezing on a plane wall with convection cooling on the back side. The
proper dimensionless groups are identified, and the optimal regime of
intermittent operation is reported in dimensionless charts. The secon
d part of the paper focuses on the contact melting process that occurs
during the gravitational removal of the ice piece. This time-dependen
t process is the result of the coupling between the thin-film fluid me
chanics, the acceleration of the ice piece and the variable length of
the direct contact region. The ice fall time predicted by the contact
melting analysis was validated by experiments with ice columns falling
from vertical tubes heated from the side.