Capillary Bridge in Contact with Ice Particles Can Be Related to the Thin Liquid Film on Ice

: We experimentally demonstrate the presence of a capillary bridge in the contact between an ice particle and a smooth aluminum surface at a relative humidity of approximately 50% and temperatures below the melting point. We conduct the experiments in a freezer with a controlled temperature and consider the mechanical instability of the bridge upon separation of the ice particle from the aluminum surface at a constant speed. We observe that a liquid bridge forms, and this formation becomes more pronounced as the temperature approaches the melting point. We also show that the separation distance is proportional to the cube root of the volume of the bridge. We hypothesize that the volume of the liquid bridge can be used to provide a rough estimate of the thickness of the liquid layer on the ice particle since in the absence of other driving mechanisms, some of the liquid on the surface must have been pulled to the bridge area. We show that the estimated value lies within the range previously reported in the literature. With these assumptions, the estimated thickness of the liquid layer decreases from nearly 56 nm at T = − 1.7°C to 0.2 nm at T = − 12.7°C. The dependence can be approximated with a power law, proportional to ( T M − T ) − β , where β < 2.6 and T M is the melting temperature. We further observe that for a rough surface, the capillary bridge formation in the considered experimental conditions vanishes. DOI: 10.1061/JCRGEI.CRENG-738 . This work is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons