An experimental study of freeze-coating on a chilled axially moving wire

An innovative experimental method was developed to simulate the process of freeze-coating on a chilled continuous wire moving axially at a constant velocity through a warm liquid bath. The experimental setup, which was capable of monitoring the motion of the wire over a sufficiently long period of time, represented the first attempt to investigate the phenomena of flow and freezing on a moving continuous object under carefully controlled laboratory conditions. Water and copper wire were used as the working fluid and the continuous object, respectively, and tests were conducted for different wire velocities, inlet wire temperatures, and ambient fluid temperatures. The local freeze-coat thickness was measured by an optical technique. Results indicated that for the case of laminar flow, the solidification process could be described by a theory based upon the boundary layer approach. Flow transition along the freeze-coat was also observed, and the critical conditions were found to be characterized by the values of three independent dimensionless parameters.