How ice bridges the gap

When supercooled dew droplets form on a chilled surface, the subsequent freezing process is driven by a fascinating phenomenon of propagating inter-droplet ice bridges. Here, we explore the range of conditions under which an individual ice dendrite can successfully bridge the gap from a frozen dropl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Soft matter 2020-02, Vol.16 (5), p.1156-1161
Main Authors: Nath, Saurabh, Ahmadi, S. Farzad, Boreyko, Jonathan B
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bridge failure
Dendritic structure
Droplets
Freezing
Ice
Ice formation
Percolation
Wettability
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Summary:When supercooled dew droplets form on a chilled surface, the subsequent freezing process is driven by a fascinating phenomenon of propagating inter-droplet ice bridges. Here, we explore the range of conditions under which an individual ice dendrite can successfully bridge the gap from a frozen droplet to its nearest liquid neighbor. Ranging the droplet sizes from 1 μm-10 mm, we find that the criterion for ice bridging is purely geometric and independent of temperature, ambient humidity, and surface wettability. We model the growth of individual ice bridges as well as the global speed of percolating fronts sweeping across large droplet populations. We also give a dynamical law for dry zone formation when ice fails to bridge the gap. We develop models to rationalize the growth of inter-droplet ice bridges that govern condensation frosting on chilled surfaces.
ISSN:1744-683X
1744-6848
DOI:10.1039/c9sm01968e