An Experimental Study on the Heat Transfer of Traveling Airborne Water Droplets in Cold Environment

This paper presents experimental results on rapid freezing of water droplets injected into a low temperature environment. A heat balance method was applied to determine the ratio of the water droplets frozen at the collection after the airborne time. The experimental results show that rapid freezing of water droplets could be achieved within three seconds of airborne time. Droplet size distribution of the frozen water droplets after collection was estimated. Heat transfer during the airborne time was calculated with consideration of the droplet size distribution. At attempt was taken to compare the heat transfer obtained with some previous studies on heat transfer of spherical objects in air. The research results show that droplet size distribution is important for the prediction of heat transfer of water droplets traveling in air. The results presented in this study contribute to the understanding of heat transfer of water droplets injected into a low temperature air.