Effects of pulsed magnetic field on freezing kinetics and physical properties of water and cucumber tissue fluid

In this paper, a special experimental device was designed to study the effect of pulsed magnetic fields (PMF) on freezing kinetics and physical properties of water and cucumber tissue fluid. Pure water and cucumber tissue fluid samples with 3.5 mL were frozen in PMF generated by a pair of Helmholtz coils. The magnetic flux density ranged from 0 to 6 mT in the experiment. The results show that PMF treatment significantly reduced the freezing point temperature (T-ice) of water and cucumber tissue fluid with 0.59 degrees C and 0.74 degrees C, respectively. Within a certain range of magnetic flux density, PMF treatment not only significantly reduced initial nucleation temperature and the temperature of end point of freezing, but also significantly reduced the phase transition time and the tempering time of both water and cucumber tissue fluid. However, the effects of PMF treatment on the total freezing time of water and cucumber tissue fluid were different. These may be related to the effects of Lorentz forces generated by PMF on the hydrogen bonds, water molecule clusters, ice crystals, charged particles and ferromagnetic particles in the fluid.