According to energy balance Eq. (3.31) could be obtained as,
Where Ai is ice-water interface area and Ao is ice-air interface area. By substituting Eq. (3.23) and (3.30) in Eq. (3.31), the following equation is obtained,
(3.32)
Now, we can find an equation for ice growth rate. Through solution of heat equation in spherical coordinates, we have,
(3.33)
T(r = ri) = Tf and T(r = r0) = Ts are ice-water and ice-air interface temperatures, respectively. The boundary conditions are written as,
By applying boundary conditions on Eq. (3.34), we have,
We define,
Thus,
(3.35)
(3.36)
The surface temperature is as follows:
where
Thus,
And
Where Biot number is defined as:
By writing the energy balance at the ice-water interface one has:
(3.38)
By substitution of θs from Eq. (3.37) in Eq. (3.39):
And by simplification of this equation, one finds
Through integration of both sides:
And we have the initial condition for ice growth as:
Thus,
Through Eq. (3.40), the radius of ice as a function of time, i.e. ice growth rate, in high air flow condition is obtained. Irajizad et al. [5] plotted Eq. (3.40) for different air velocities and temperatures. As shown in Figure 3.9, the initial rate of ice growth is low. However, the rate of ice growth increases as the ice growth proceeds.
A critical factor in ice growth in airflow is humidity. For example, in the presence of airflow, at humidity of 30-75%, ice nucleation occurs at liquid-vapor interface which is called homogeneous nucleation, while at humidity close to 100%, heterogeneous ice nucleation which is ice nucleation at solid-liquid interface occurs [24]. This phenomenon can be justified by evaporation rate. Evaporation rate is higher at lower humidity. Therefore, at lower humidity high rate of evaporation cools down the liquid-vapor interface leading to ice nucleation at this interface. On the other hand, once evaporation rate is low in high humidity, ice nucleation occurs at solid-liquid interface. Note that humidity also affects ice growth in the environments with airflow. Airflow with higher amount of humidity