An investigation of the freezing of supercooled water in forced flow inside circular tubes

The problem of unwanted freezing arises in many familiar applications such as in water mains, continuous casting of metals, and a number of advanced propulsion devices that utilize liquid-liquid heat exchangers in which the coolant is at a temperature below the freezing point of the warm liquid. In this work a mathematical model has been developed to predict the maximum supercooling that can be obtained in a liquid in forced flow inside a circular tube as a function of local tube wall temperature, tube inside diameter, Reynolds number, and a dimensional constant that has been determined from experimental data. An experiment has been carried out to record the maximum supercooling that can be obtained in water. The experimental data have verified tbc analytical predictions to a good extent. An attempt has also been made to predict the conditions under which flowing supercooled water will freeze.