The Effects of Ambient Pressure on the Initiation of the Freezing Process for a Water Droplet on a Cold Surface

摘要

This study investigated the effect of air pressure on the freezing process of a water droplet on a cold surface. A common belief is that bulk liquid water is incompressible and air pressure does not affect the freezing point of the bulk liquid water over a wide range of pressure. However, our results demonstrated that, for a water droplet on a cold surface, its freezing process started early at lower ambient pressures. Such a phenomenon can be explained by the effects of the evaporative cooling.