A planar fractal model for simulation of frost formation and growth was proposed based on diffusion limited aggregation(DLA)model and the computational simulation was carried out in this paper.By changing the times of program running circulation and the ratio of random particles generated,the simulation figures were gained under different conditions.A microscope is used to observe the shape and structure of frost layer and a digital camera with high resolution is used to record the pattern of frost layer at different time.Through comparing the simulation figures with the experimental images,we find that the simulation results agree well with the experimental images in shape and the fractal dimension of simulation figures is nearly equal to that of experimental images.The results indicate that it is reasonable to represent frost layer growth time with the program circulation times and to simulate the frost layer density variation during its growth process by reducing the random particle generation probability.The feasibility of using the suggested model to simulate the process of frost formation and growth was justified.The insufficiencies and its causes of this fractal model are also discussed.
LIU YaoMin,LIU ZhongLiang,HUANG LingYan&SUN JunFang Education Ministry Key Laboratory of Enhanced Heat Transfer and Energy Conservation,College of Environmental and Energy Engineering,Beijing University of Technology,Beijing 100124,China
Freezing processes of water and peanut oil droplets on a cold surface are investigated in this paper. We observed during our experiments that the base surface of a water droplet that is in direct contact with the cold surface keeps its original shape, but the other part of the droplet shows an obvious growth along the direction normal to the base surface. One small protrusion appears on the top of the water droplet at the end of the freezing process. The experimental observations also show that no obvious shape change happens during the freezing of peanut oil droplets. It is postulated that the effects of sur- face tension and volume dilatation resulted from liquid-to-solid phase change cause the shape change and protrusions formation. Based on this postulation, a physical and mathematical model is developed. The results of the model of a water droplet’s freezing process correspond with our experimental observations. The observed phenomenon that frost-growth speed on the protrusion is higher than that on the other part of the water droplet is also analyzed.
WANG Jieteng LIU Zhongliang GOU Yujun ZHANG Xinhua CHENG Shuiyuan
