Solidification of supercooled water in the vicinity of a solid wall

An experimental approach utilizing a Hele-Shaw cell for the investigation of the solidification of a supercooled liquid in contact with a solid wall is presented. The setup is based on an idea presented by Marin et al. [A. G. Marin et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 054301 (2014)], who investigated the planar freezing of a sessile drop without supercooling. This apparatus overcomes optical distortions present when observing the freezing of sessile drops, arising due to reflections and refraction of light on the drop surface. The facility is used to investigate the freezing process of water drops, supercooled down to -20 degrees , and to qualitatively demonstrate that the growth behavior is uninfluenced by the use of the Hele-Shaw cell. Different features during freezing, which are known for sessile water drops, are also observed with the Hele-Shaw cell. The growth morphology within the first phase of solidification is categorized according to the initial drop supercooling. Furthermore, freezing velocities within this phase are related to data available in the literature for the growth of single ice dendrites.