Melting of fractal snowflakes: Experiments and modeling

Numerical simulations of snow accretion on aircraft or weather phenomena require an accurate predic-tion of the melting of snowflakes. In the present study, an experimental setup for the investigation of snowflake melting is presented, which utilizes an acoustic levitator holding a snowflake in a warm air-flow. Based on the experimental findings, a theoretical model for the melting process is developed. This theoretical model takes into account that the generated liquid water is driven into the porous ice struc-ture by capillary forces and does not accumulate at the outer surface of the snowflake. This enables the use of a mass-size relationship in form of a power law, which is common in atmospheric sciences. The model prediction of the evolution of the maximum dimension during melting agrees well with the ex-periments. Moreover, the snowflake melting durations are also estimated well, if an accurate value is available for the particle mass fractal dimension, i.e., the exponent in the mass-size power law. (c) 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This study presents an experimental setup and a theoretical model for studying snowflake melting. The experimental results agree well with the model predictions, and an accurate value of the particle mass fractal dimension is required for accurately estimating the melting duration.