Fundamentals of Recalescent Freezing on Immersed Nano-engineered Surfaces: The Influence of External Flow and Ultrasonic Fields
Freezing of flowing water is fundamentally important in nature and technology, and it can have negative effects when ice grows on surfaces. Despite our improved understanding of how water freezes, especially for small droplets, we do not understand how larger liquid flows freeze especially near cooling surfaces. Therefore, in this project we will investigate the effect of cooling surface properties and flow conditions, which are relevant for many applications, on ice nucleation and freezing. These results will create a science-base for the development of surfaces that prevent ice nucleation on cooled surfaces. We will also elucidate the effects of surface design, flow field, and ultrasonic field on the tendency of ice to nucleate, freeze, and adhere with the nucleating surface. Overall, we aim to realize rationally engineered systems for enhanced supercooling of water flows and enhance crystallization for efficient production of water-ice mixtures, which have tremendous potential for applications ranging from sustainable cooling to renewable energy storage.