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Updated: Oct 15, 2025

Ice Generation and the Heat and Mass Transfer Phenomena of Introducing Water to a Cold Bath of Brine
Published on: March 13, 2017
Impact of Suspended Solids on Coarsening of Ice
1Faculty of Agriculture and Life Science, Hirosaki University, Postal address; 3 Bunkyo-cho, Hirosaki, Aomori 036-8561, Japan.
Abstract:
Suspended solids, such as silica particles and cellulose fibers, were added to a sucrose aqueous solution, and ice crystals were coarsened at -10 °C. From the radius of the ice crystals, the coarsening rate constant was obtained using the Lifshitz-Wagner equation and the impact of the suspended solid on the coarsening of ice was evaluated. The results showed that the addition of the silica particle suppressed coarsening, but this behavior was not dependent on particle size. It was also shown that cellulose fibers suppressed coarsening more than silica particles. In order to clarify these causes, the present study investigated the correlation between L w-L mea and the coarsening rate constants obtained from different suspensions. L w is the latent heat of fusion (calculated value) corresponding to the water content of the suspension, while L mea is the latent heat of fusion (measured value) obtained by thermal analysis. A correlation was observed between L w-L mea and the logarithm of the coarsening rate constant. L w-L mea represents the volume of water that did not form ice crystals on the addition of the suspended solid (volume of unfrozen water at -10 °C), with a larger L w-L mea associated with greater inhibition of coarsening. The present findings suggest that suspended solids inhibit coarsening by promoting ice crystal melting.
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