Influence of early crystal growth on frost formation.

Frost grows out of the phase change of water vapour when it desublimates into ice on a cold substrate. It naturally occurs in a very wide range of phenomena and weather conditions and potentially hinders manmade structures and means of transportation, it is therefore important to understand its governing mechanisms to prevent unwanted consequences. A complete understanding of frost growth is still lacking and knowledge on the early development of frost layers will help us understand their properties, such as the porosity and thermal conductivity. We therefore studied frost growth experimentally on cold substrates in the crystal growth phase where crystal seeds initiate the frost formation. The temporal evolution of crystal growth was monitored in function of substrate temperature and vapour supersaturation. We subsequently characterized its formation and compared to theoretical predictions.