Modeling and Experimental study of force convection frost formation over a curved surface

Frost formation has important effects in many fields, such as refrigeration industry, air-conditioning, aviation, etc. The frost develops when a humid air comes into contact with a cooler surface then to its freezing point. Frost formation is a complicated transient phenomenon in which a variety of heat and mass transfer mechanisms are taking place simultaneously. In this work development of frost on horizontal cylinder in force convection conditions was investigated experimentally. An experimental system of frost formation on cold cylinder surface whit wind tunnel was set up and the effects of cold surface temperature, air temperature, air velocity and air relative humidity on frost thickness and density were studied. Result shows that as relative humidity increased and surface temperature decreased, frost thickness increased and frost density decreased. Also as air temperature increased and air velocity decreased, frost thickness and frost density decreased. On top of and at the bottom of cylinder, frost thickness is minimum and at the behind of cylinder, frost thickness is maximum. Finally presentation of a correlation based on experimental data and effective parameters have studied.