Analysis of early-stage frost formation in natural convection over a horizontal cylinder

Frost growth process on a cold surface consists of two stages: The early-stage or one-dimensional growth of ice columns and multidimensional growth in the form of a porous structure. The transition time which marking these two stages is important for any numerical modeling of frost formation. This paper proposes a mathematical model to predict the transition time and frost properties in natural convection of frost formation over a cooled horizontal cylinder in the first stage of growth period. Comparison is performed among the results of this model and experimental observations reported in the literatures. It is observed that the presented model can be used more efficiently to determine transition time and frost properties in the early-stage of frost formation. Based on the obtained results a new correlation is developed for the duration time of early-stage of frost formation process (transition time) in natural convection. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved.