Atomistic Description of Interdroplet Ice-Bridge Formation during Condensation Frosting

Stefano Curiotto, David Paulovics, Christophe Raufaste, Franck Celestini, Thomas Frisch,Frédéric Leroy, Fabien Cheynis, and Pierre Müller

Collaboration CINaM, INPHYNI (Institut de Physique de Nice)

Langmuir Décembre 2022

The propagation of frost in an assembly of supercooled dew droplets takes place by the formation of ice protrusions that bridge ice particles and still-liquid droplets.

In this work, we develop a Kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) model to study the formation kinetics of the ice protrusions. The KMC simulations reproduce well the experimental results reported in the literature. A 1D analytical model based on the water-molecule concentration gradient between a droplet and a nearby ice particle reproduces well the simulation results and highlights the relation between the protrusion elongation kinetics and parameters like the interdroplet distance, the water diffusivity, and the concentration gradient. Comparing the simulations, the analytical model, and the experimental results of the literature, we conclude that the propagation of frost on a flat substrate in an assembly of supercooled dew droplets with interdroplet spacing larger than about 1 μm is limited by water-molecule diffusivity.