Investigation of Water to Ice Phase Change in Porous Media by Ultrasonic and Dielectric Measurements
Publication: Journal of Cold Regions Engineering
Volume 23, Issue 2
Abstract
The main objective of this paper is to study the evolution of the ice content of porous media submitted to subzero temperatures by dielectric and ultrasonic measurements. Dielectric measurements are made by a capacitive sensor-based apparatus. The amount of ice formed within the tested sample is estimated from the global dielectric constants of the sample and of all the phases that form the tested composite material. On the other hand, ultrasonic measurements are based on the evolution of the ultrasonic wave velocity through the tested sample during a freezing-thawing cycle. These two methods lead to very close results and appear to be cheaper alternatives to low temperature calorimetry. The ice content curves are analyzed with the help of thermoporometry concepts in order to characterize the pore-size distribution. Results appear to be complementary to mercury intrusion porosimetry ones. Moreover, the commonly observed hysteresis of the ice content during a freezing-thawing cycle is investigated with respect to material microstructure.
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Acknowledgments
The writers are indebted to Damien Delmoitié and Patrick Zélis for their contribution on dielectric and ultrasonic measurements. The writers are also grateful to Philippe Vié for the fabrication of the sintered glass beads, Alex Bertholet for the setup of the ultrasonic device, and Eric Dupuis for the development of the data acquisition system.
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Published In
Journal of Cold Regions Engineering
Volume 23 • Issue 2 • June 2009
Pages: 69 - 90
Copyright
© 2009 ASCE.
History
Received: Oct 30, 2006
Accepted: Nov 14, 2008
Published online: May 15, 2009
Published in print: Jun 2009
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