Experimental study on freezing of water with supercooled region in a horizontal cylinder

The freezing phenomenon of saturated water with the supercooled region in a horizontal circular cylinder has been studied experimentally by using the holographic real time interferometry technique. From the experiments, it was found that there were three types of freezing patterns. The first is the annular ice layer growing from the cylinder surface at a high cooling rate, the next is the asymmetric ice layer at an intermediate cooling rate, and the last is the instantaneous ice layer growing over the whole region at a low cooling rate. As the water was cooled from room temperature to the subfreezing point passing through the density inversion point, the freezing pattern was largely affected by the inversion phenomenon, which had significantly affected the free convection and was susceptible to influences from the cooling rate. When the cooling rate is high, supercooling energy is released before water is sufficiently mixed by free convection. On the other hand, when the cooling rate is low, there is a lot of time for the water to be mixed by free convection. This seems to be the reason why different ice layer growths occur.