Freezing of sessile droplet and frost halo formation

Abstract

The freezing of a sessile droplet unveils fascinating physics, characterised by the emergence of a frost halo on the underlying substrate, the progression of the liquid-ice interface, and the formation of a cusp-like morphology at the tip of the droplet. We investigate the freezing of a volatile sessile droplet, focusing on the frost halo formation, which has not been theoretically explored. The formation of the frost halo is associated with the inherent evaporation process in the early freezing stages. We observe a negative evaporation flux enveloping the droplet in the initial stages, which indicates that vapour produced during freezing condenses on the substrate close to the contact line, forming a frost halo. The condensate accumulation triggers re-evaporation, resulting in a temporal shift of the frost halo region away from the contact line. Eventually, it disappears due to the diffusive nature of the water vapour far away from the droplet. We found that increasing the relative humidity increases the lifetime of the frost halo due to a substantial reduction in evaporation that prolonged the presence of net condensate on the substrate. Increasing liquid volatility increases the evaporation flux, and condensation occurs closer to the droplet, as a higher amount of vapour is in the periphery of the droplet. We also found that decreasing the thermal conductivity of the substrate increases the total freezing time. The slower freezing process is accompanied by increased vaporized liquid, resulting in condensation with its concentration reaching supersaturation.