APPARATUS FOR MEASURING THE GROWTH VELOCITY OF DENDRITIC ICE IN UNDERCOOLED WATER

A unique apparatus for measuring the dendritic growth velocity of ice crystals in undercooled water is described and a preliminary result at undercooling levels between 5 and 8.5 K is presented. The result appe ars to show a significant deviation from the theoretical prediction ba sed on the thermal diffusion model possibly due to sluggish interface kinetics which start playing a role in dendritic growth at these under cooling levels. Discussion includes necessary modifications of the dia gnostic technique in order to eliminate uncertainties in the prelimina ry data and improve the accuracy in future measurements. (C) 1998 Publ ished by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.