Freezing in a Vertical Tube

Abstract

Fundamental heat transfer experiments were performed for freezing of an initially superheated or nonsuperheated liquid in a cooled vertical tube. Measurements were made which yielded information about the freezing front and the frozen mass, about the various energy components extracted from the tube, and about the decay of the initial liquid superheat. Four component energies were identified and evaluated from the experimental data, including the latent energy released by the phase change and sensible energies released from the subcooled frozen solid and the superheated liquid. Initial superheating of the liquid tended to moderately diminish the frozen mass and latent energy extraction at short freezing times but had little effect on these quantities at longer times. The extracted sensible energies associated with the superheating more than compensated for the aforementioned decrease in the latent energy. Although the latent energy is the largest contributor to the total extracted energy, the aggregate sensible energies can make a significant contribution, especially at large tube wall subcooling, large initial liquid superheating, and short freezing time. Natural convection effects in the superheated liquid were modest and were confined to short freezing times.