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At least 37 records · Page 2

Heterogeneous Ice Growth in Micron-Sized Water Droplets Due to Spontaneous Freezing

Understanding how ice nucleates and grows into larger crystals is of crucial importance for many research fields. The purpose of this study was to shed light on the phase and structure of ice once a nucleus is formed inside a metastable water droplet. Wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) was performed on micron-sized droplets evaporatively cooled to temperatures where homogeneous nucleation occurs. We found that for our weak hits ice grows more cubic compared to the strong hits that are completely hexagonal. Due to efficient heat removal caused by evaporation, we propose that the cubicity of ice at the vicinity of the droplet’s surface is higher than for ice formed within the bulk of the droplet. Moreover, the Bragg peaks were classified based on their geometrical shapes and positions in reciprocal space, which showed that ice grows heterogeneously with a significant population of peaks indicative of truncation rods and crystal defects. Frequent occurrences of the (100) reflection with extended in-planar structure suggested that large planar ice crystals form at the droplet surface, then fracture into smaller domains to accommodate to the curvature of the droplets. Planar faulting due to misaligned domains would explain the increased cubicity close to the droplet surface.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Ice Growth Model for Polar Water Capture Systems

In-situ resource utilization (ISRU) is essential to NASA’s goal of sustainable and cost-effective missions to the Moon and beyond. Water has become a particular source of interest since its discovery in the permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) of the Moon. This water exists as ice bound within the regolith, so one mode of capture is heating to sublimation temperatures and capturing at very low pressure. It then can be stored in ice form and transported out of the PSR and to a sunlit ridge, where processes such as electrolysis can be performed[2]. An understanding of frost growth dynamics under rarefied conditions is necessary for successful water capture and storage due to transient thermal properties of frost. A Diffusion-Limited Aggregation (DLA) approach was taken to analytically model bulk thermal conductivity changes of the growing frost layer under varying wall temperatures and frost layer porosities. The model utilizes well-known correlations for effective thermal conductivity and records the values as the frost layer thickness increases. This thermal conductivity can be applied to a known temperature change and be used to evaluate heat flux through the combined frost layer and tank wall for either a flat plate or cylindrical geometry. An experiment is described that will evaluate this model using one-dimensional frost growth on a horizontal, flat plate under low-pressure. The ice growth will be measured using a millimeter-scale photogrammetry camera system and a load cell measured transient mass growth.

ice growth↗

Ice Growth Model for Polar Water Capture Systems

In-situ resource utilization (ISRU) is essential to NASA’s goal of sustainable and cost-effective missions to the Moon and beyond. Water has become a particular source of interest since its discovery in the permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) of the Moon. This water exists as ice bound within the regolith, so one mode of capture is heating to sublimation temperatures and capturing at very low pressure. It then can be stored in ice form and transported out of the PSR and to a sunlit ridge, where processes such as electrolysis can be performed[2]. An understanding of frost growth dynamics under rarefied conditions is necessary for successful water capture and storage due to transient thermal properties of frost. A Diffusion-Limited Aggregation (DLA) approach was taken to analytically model bulk thermal conductivity changes of the growing frost layer under varying wall temperatures and frost layer porosities. The model utilizes well-known correlations for effective thermal conductivity and records the values as the frost layer thickness increases. This thermal conductivity can be applied to a known temperature change and be used to evaluate heat flux through the combined frost layer and tank wall for either a flat plate or cylindrical geometry. An experiment is described that will evaluate this model using one-dimensional frost growth on a horizontal, flat plate under low-pressure. The ice growth will be measured using a millimeter-scale photogrammetry camera system and a load cell measured transient mass growth.

In situ Resource Utilization↗

Numerical simulation of ice growth on a MS-317 swept wing geometry

An effort to develop a 3-D ice accretion modeling method was initiated. This first step towards creation of a complete aircraft icing simulation code builds on previously developed methods for calculating 3-D flow fields and particle trajectories combined with a 2-D ice accretion calculation along coordinate locations corresponding to streamlines. The types of calculations necessary to predict 3-D ice accretion is demonstrated. Results of calculations using 3-D method for a MS-317 swept wing geometry are projected onto a 2-D plane parallel to the free stream direction and compared to experimental results for the same geometry. It is anticipated that many modifications will be made to this approach, however this effort will lay the groundwork for future modeling efforts. Results indicate that rime ice shapes indicate a difficulty in accurately calculating the ice shape in the runback region.

Potapczuk, M. G.↗

Numerical simulation of ice growth on a MS-317 swept wing geometry

An effort to develop a 3-D ice accretion modeling method was initiated. This first step towards creation of a complete aircraft icing simulation code builds on previously developed methods for calculating 3-D flow fields and particle trajectories combined with a 2-D ice accretion calculation along coordinate locations corresponding to streamlines. The types of calculations necessary to predict three-dimensional ice accretion is demonstrated. Results of calculations using 3-D method for a MS-317 swept wing geometry are projected onto a 2-D plane parallel to the free stream direction and compared to experimental results for the same geometry. It is anticipated that many modifications will be made to this approach, however, this effort will lay the groundwork for future modeling efforts. Results indicate that rime ice shapes indicate a difficulty in accurately calculating the ice shape in the runback region.

Potapczuk, M. G.↗

Ice Growth Model and Lunar Tanker for Polar Water Extraction

In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) is a major component of sustainable and cost-effective missions to the Moon and beyond. Ever since it has been identified in the Permanently Shadowed Regions (PSRs) of the Moon, water has become a resource of interest for it’s wide range of uses such as life support and hydrogen and oxygen rocket propellant. It is ice-bound in the regolith, so separation typically involves heating to sublimation temperatures and capturing at very low pressure. One option is to then store it in ice form and transport it out of the PSR and into a sunlit ridge. From here, processes such as electrolysis can be performed. An understanding of frost growth dynamics under rarefied conditions is necessary for successful water production, though. An analytical model was developed using a Diffusion-Limited Aggregation (DLA) approach to evaluate bulk thermal conductivity changes of frost under varying conditions. This model will be evaluated using a one-dimensional frost growth experiment on a horizontal, flat plate under vacuum and cryogenic conditions. The tests will measure frost growth rate and bulk density, and the thermal conductivity of the ice layer as a function of thickness for different plate temperatures. The test data will then be used to validate and improve the analytical model.

Lunar water↗

Experimental methodologies to support aircraft icing analysis

The experimental methodologies are illustrated by graphs, charts and line drawings. Typical ultrasonic echo signals for dry and wet ice growth, ice accretion rates for various tunnel configurations, the experimental configuration for flight tests of the ultrasonic measuring system and heat balance models used to predict ice growth are among the topics that are illustrated and briefly discussed.

Hansman, R. John, Jr.↗

Ice Crystal Growth Rates Under Upper Troposphere Conditions

Atmospheric conditions for growth of ice crystals (temperature and ice supersaturation) are often not well constrained and it is necessary to simulate such conditions in the laboratory to investigate such growth under well controlled conditions over many hours. The growth of ice crystals from the vapour in both prism and basal planes was observed at temperatures of -60 C and -70 C under ice supersaturation up to 100% (200% relative humidity) at pressures derived from the standard atmosphere in a static diffusion chamber. Crystals grew outward from a vertical glass filament, thickening in the basal plane by addition of macroscopic layers greater than 2 m, leading to growth in the prism plane by passing of successive layers conveniently viewed by time lapse video.

Peterson, Harold S.↗

Ice Particle Growth Under Conditions of the Upper Troposphere

Atmospheric conditions for growth of ice crystals (temperature and ice supersaturation) are often not well constrained and it is necessary to simulate such conditions in the laboratory to investigate such growth under well controlled conditions over many hours. The growth of ice crystals from the vapour in both prism and basal planes was observed at temperatures of -60 C and -70 C under ice supersaturation up to 100% (200% relative humidity) at pressures derived from the standard atmosphere in a static diffusion chamber. Crystals grew outward from a vertical glass filament, thickening in the basal plane by addition of macroscopic layers greater than 2 microns, leading to growth in the prism plane by passing of successive layers conveniently viewed by time lapse video.

Peterson, Harold S.↗

Ice Particle Growth Rates Under Upper Troposphere Conditions

Atmospheric conditions for growth of ice crystals (temperature and ice supersaturation) are often not well constrained and it is necessary to simulate such conditions in the laboratory to investigate such growth under well controlled conditions over many hours. The growth of ice crystals from the vapour in both prism and basal planes was observed at temperatures of -60 C and -70 C under ice supersaturation up to 100% (200% relative humidity) at pressures derived from the standard atmosphere in a static diffusion chamber. Crystals grew outward from a vertical glass filament, thickening in the basal plane by addition of macroscopic layers greater than 2 m, leading to growth in the prism plane by passing of successive layers conveniently viewed by time lapse video.

Peterson, Harold↗

An experimental and theoretical study of the ice accretion process during artificial and natural icing conditions

Real-time measurements of ice growth during artificial and natural icing conditions were conducted using an ultrasonic pulse-echo technique. This technique allows ice thickness to be measured with an accuracy of + or - 0.5 mm; in addition, the ultrasonic signal characteristics may be used to detect the presence of liquid on the ice surface and hence discern wet and dry ice growth behavior. Ice growth was measured on the stagnation line of a cylinder exposed to artificial icing conditions in the NASA Lewis Icing Research Tunnel (IRT), and similarly for a cylinder exposed in flight to natural icing conditions. Ice thickness was observed to increase approximately linearly with exposure time during the initial icing period. The ice accretion rate was found to vary with cloud temperature during wet ice growth, and liquid runback from the stagnation region was inferred. A steady-state energy balance model for the icing surface was used to compare heat transfer characteristics for IRT and natural icing conditions. Ultrasonic measurements of wet and dry ice growth observed in the IRT and in flight were compared with icing regimes predicted by a series of heat transfer coefficients. The heat transfer magnitude was generally inferred to be higher for the IRT than for the natural icing conditions encountered in flight. An apparent variation in the heat transfer magnitude was also observed for flights conducted through different natural icing-cloud formations.

Kirby, Mark S.↗

Improving parameterization of ice microphysical processes in Arctic clouds using a synergistic modeling and observational approach (Final Report)

The primary goals of the project were to: 1) Improve the fundamental quantitative models of ice growth processes using ARM radar observations. 2) Better understand the growth of ice particle populations through vapor deposition, riming, and aggregation in Arctic clouds using a new particle-property microphysical model. 3) Robustly estimate and constrain key unknown model parameters using ARM radar observations combined with the particle-property model to develop an improved parameterization of ice growth processes for traditional bulk parameterizations used in cloud and climate models.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Influence of air velocity on the habit of ice crystal growth from the vapor

The effect of air velocity on the growth behavior of ice crystals growing from water vapor was investigated at temperatures between 0 and -35 C and at supersaturation levels ranging from 2 to 40 percent, using a laboratory chamber in which it was possible to make these variations. It was found that crystal growth was most sensitive to changes in the air velocity at temperatures near -4 C and -15 C where, near water saturation, the introduction of only a 5 cm/s air velocity induced skeletal transitions (columns to needles near -4 C and plates to dendrites near -15 C). The experiments provide conditions which simulate growth of ice crystals in the atmosphere, where crystal growth takes place at or somewhat below water saturation.

Keller, V. W.↗

Ultrasonic techniques for aircraft ice accretion measurement

Results of tests to measure ice growth in natural (flight) and artificial (icing wind tunnel) icing conditions are presented. Ice thickness is measured using an ultrasonic pulse-echo technique. Two icing regimes, wet and dry ice growth, are identified and the unique ultrasonic signal characteristics associated with these different types of ice growth are described. Ultrasonic measurements of ice growth on cylinders and airfoils exposed to artificial and natural icing conditions are presented. An accuracy of plus or minus 0.5 mm is achieved for ice thickness measurement using the pulse-echo technique. The performance of two-probe type ice detectors is compared to the surface mounted ultrasonic system. The ultrasonically measured ice accretion rates and ice surface condition (wet or dry) are used to compare the heat transfer characteristics for flight and icing wind tunnel environments. In general the heat transfer coefficient is inferred to be higher in the wind tunnel environment, not likely due to higher freestream turbulence levels. Finally, preliminary results of tests to measure ice growth on airfoil using an array of ultrasonic transducers are described. Ice profiles obtained during flight in natural icing conditions are shown and compared with mechanical and stereo image measurements.

Hansman, R. John, Jr.↗