Analysis of the characteristics of an air bubble de-icing system under different cold environments

To counteract the negative effects that icing on the water surface in winter may have on the normal navigation of ships, a simple and reliable bubble de-icing system can be utilized to melt the ice by impacting the ice with an underwater bubbly flow. The cold environment above the ice affects the melting process and should be taken into account. An experimental set-up is built to investigate the effect of the cold environment and a melting model for a bubble de-icing system is developed. The ice-water interface gradually forms a peak-like shape with a central bulge and then tends to stabilize, with a change ratio of less than 10% within 180 s after t = 540 s in the deviation of the melting height and the heat transfer coefficient. Comparing the melting height calculated by the melting model with the experimental data, the error is around 5%. The balanced height of the ice in the balanced stage increases significantly with the increase of air speed and the decrease of air temperature. The results of the study are expected to provide a reference for the optimization and practical application of the bubble de-icing system.