การประชุมเชิงวิชาการเครือขายพลังงานแหงประเทศไทยครั้งที่ 3

23-25 พฤษภาคม 2550 โรงแรมใบหยกสกาย จังหวัดกรุงเทพฯ

Simulation of Block Ice Formation with Varying Brine Temperatures

*
Arsanchai Sukkuea and Kuntinee Maneeratana
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330 Thailand
Tel: 0-2218-6610, Fax: 0-2252-2889, E-mail: arsanchai@yahoo.com, kuntinee.m@chula.ac.th

Abstract
This paper simulates the formation of block ice with real
brine temperature changes by the finite volume method. The
mathematical model is based upon the explicit heat conduction
equation with the fixed grid and latent heat source approaches.
With hourly brine temperature measurements, 3 different types of
variations – linear interpolation, constant average and step – are
considered in the 1D and 3D simulations. The main results are
temperature profiles, ice/water fraction and internal energy loss.
The test cases with linear interpolation show that results have
similar overall characteristics to the simulation with constant brine
temperature, but with distinctive temperature variations in the
frozen regions. When the brine temperature variation is changed
to the step approximation, the results differ slightly from the linear
interpolation and may possibly be used for further approximation.
the refrigeration system, does not affect the product sizes and
requires relatively low investment and development.
The factory operates 20 hours every day from 0:00-20:00 hr.
During this period, evaporator piping and fans keep the brine
water temperature within −2 to −12°C range (Figure 2). From the
measurements at two opposite ends of a pool, denoted Tb1 and
Tb2, it was found that the brine temperatures were almost uniform,
especially when compared to the average brine temperatures Tb.
It was also observed that the brine temperature increased
significantly outside operating hours.

1. Introduction
Ice factories produce block ice for consumption, fishing and Figure 1 An ice factory floor (left) and a set of ice moulds (right).

frozen food businesses. Such factories consume huge amount of

electricity in the manufacturing process. A factory in Samut Tb−Tb2 Tb−Tb1
2
Sakhon Province can be considered as a typical large ice
0
brine temperature, °C

manufacturer in Thailand. The block ice section contains two -2

14.5×17×2-m brine pools, each containing 2,600 ice moulds -4
(Figure 1). Ice blocks, weighting around 150-160 kg each, are -6
ready for sale in 40 to 70-hours cycles. As the factory sells ice -8

blocks to customers sporadically, substantial savings can be -10 Tb

made by increasing equipment efficiencies as well as optimizing -12
0 24 48 72 96 120
operating conditions to reduce ice oversupply and electricity cost
time t, hr
[1]. Figure 2 Hourly brine temperatures during 1-5 Oct 2004 period
In order to effectively control operating conditions, it is [2]. The Tb is averaged from measurements Tb1 and Tb2 at two
crucial to accurately predict the ice formation within the moulds. opposite pool ends.

Even though there are many parameters affecting the rates of A cost effective and quick method of predicting the ice
block ice formation, such as the brine temperature, brine level, formation rate is the numerical computation. The final objective of
size of block ice as well as losses, etc. The first obvious choice this research is to develop a cheap computational program that
for operation control is the brine temperature which only involves

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can predict the ice formation with sufficient accuracy, leading to a in the rough estimation of ice formation rates by tabulated data
better plant control for energy saving, increased efficiency and for on-site control.
profitability [1].
During solidification, the liquid/solid front, which releases 2. Mathematical Model and Simulation
massive latent heat, continuously moves through the domain. The energy conservation and Fourier’s law of heat
The ice formation, characterised by isothermal phase change conduction are employed as the mathematical model.
under constant freezing temperature and abrupt property ∂H ∂ ∂T
= (k ), (1)
discontinuity, is highly non-linear and exact solutions of the ∂t ∂xi ∂xi

mathematical models are extremely difficult to obtain. Thus, the where H, t, T, k and xi are enthalpy, time, temperature, thermal
numerical simulations are popularly employed instead. conductivity and coordinates. The enthalpy H is calculated from:
The overall literature survey on such numerical simulation H=∫
T
ρ cS dT if T < TF ,
Tref
was provided in [3]. The numerical procedures can be TF T
H=∫ ρ cS dT + ρ L + ∫ ρ cL dT if T ≥ TF , (2)
categorized as combinations of two main models, grid and latent Tref TF

heat representations. The grid consideration may be further
divided into front tracking and fixed grid approaches while the
latent heat is represented by either the temperature-based or the
enthalpy-based methods. By comparing combinations of these
approaches for the finite volume (FV) simulation in a previous
study [3], the fixed grid and the modified fictitious heat schemes
is chosen such that the latent heat increment is calculated from
the fictitious temperature in the freezing region and then the
temperature fields are adjusted.
In addition, appropriate transient and interface
approximations must be selected. From available numerical
techniques, 4 temporal schemes – explicit, fully implicit, Crank-
Nicolson and pseudo-implicit [4] – and 3 interface conductivity
approximations – arithmetic, harmonic means and solid
conductivity – are considered and used for 1D and 2D test cases
[3]. The papers conclude that the best practical choices are the
explicit temporal scheme for least computational expense and the
solid interface approximation, which slightly overestimates the
conductivity as the freezing front progresses across the saturated
cells.
This paper expands the previous studies [3-4] using real-life
brine temperatures for 1D and 3D test cases. As the steel mould
is made from 1.5 to 5.5-mm-thick steel plate of which the heat
conductivity is much higher than ice, the brine temperature is
where ρ is mass density, c is the specific heat, L is the latent heat
per unit mass, Tref is the reference temperature and TF is the
freezing temperature. The subscripts S and L indicate the solid
and liquid properties, respectively.
The boundary conditions are symmetry plane (zero heat
flux) and prescribed brine temperature. It is noted that this work
neglects effects of radiation as well as all modes of convection,
e.g. thermal, solidification expansion and bulk convection [3].
Thus, the density of the ice is approximated to that of the water to
ensure the conservation of mass due to the lack of mass
convection across cell faces.
The mathematical model is discretised by a cell-centred
finite volume technique [4]. The domain is discretised into control
volumes or cells. A typical cell with volume V P (Figure 3) is
represented by the node P at and bounded by n cell faces f with
normal, outwards surfaces Sif , which are shared between P and
f
adjacent cells Q . Non-computational boundary nodes are used to
specify boundary conditions. The time domain is divided into time
steps of size δt. Variables at time t are denoted by the superscript
0 while those at time level t + δt are not.
d if Qf
P
f Sif
V P

used as the prescribed temperature of the domain.

Figure 3 A typical unstructured control volume.
In addition, it was found in a previous study [4] that the
highly non-linear, transient 3D simulations uses up a lot of As the fictitious sensible heat is used, equations (1) and (2)

memory and CPU as well as takes a very long time such that are combined with the sensible heat term and converted into the

they usually took roughly 2 days to run the program on a integral form for any cell P as:
∂T n
∂T
personal computer. Thus, real-time, on-site simulations for each
∫ ρ c ∂t dV P = ∑ ∫ k f dSif . (3)
f =1 ∂xi
block ice are not economically appropriate. Besides, there is no
need to predict the formation rate at an extremely high accuracy The second-order accurate spatial distribution of variables is

as some extra supply availability are built into the plant control in
case of unexpected customer demands. Thus, the second
objective of this paper is to study the simulation results in order to
identifying a simple brine temperature variation that can be used
assumed. The value of a quantity φ at a face f calculated by:
f f f
φP + φQ (∂φ ∂xi )P (ri f − ri P ) + (∂φ ∂xi )Q (ri f − riQ )
φf = + , (4)
2 2

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where ri is the position vector and the superscript denotes the
location of the property. The gradient vector (∂φ ∂xi )
calculated by ensuring a least square fit of φ through P and
f
neighbouring nodes Q as:
suddenly lowered to the brine temperature Tb (Figure 2) while the
P
at cell P is other boundary condition at x = 0 is symmetry plane. The
freezing occurs at TF = 0°C with L = 338 kJ/kg while other
properties are shown in Table 1. The domain is discretised into

⎛ nb d d f f
⎞ ∂φ P nb (φ − φ )d P Qf f 50 uniform cells and δ t = 1 s which satisfy both the explicit time
⎜⎜ ∑ ) =∑
j i j
⎟⎟ ( , (5)
⎠ ∂xi
f 3
⎝ f =1 (d ) f =1 (d f )3 step restriction of δ t < ρ c (δ x )2 / 2k and the 1-cell-deep freezing
f f front requirement [3].
where d if = riQ − ri P is the distance vector between P and Q . For
the conductivity k at cell faces, the solid value kS are used as
Table 1 Material properties of water and ice [3].
recommended in [3-4]. The diffusion flux through the face f into
f
an adjacent node Q is approximated using the orthogonal Property Water Ice

correction method as: k (W/m ⋅ K) 0.556 2.220

∂T ⎛T −T Q P
∂T f S d ⎞ f f
c (kJ/kg ⋅ K) 4.226 1.762
∫k dSif ≈ k f ⎜ +( ) ( − )⎟ Sf . (6)
f i i
∂xi ⎝ d
f
∂xi S d ⎠ f f
ρ (kg/m3 ) 1000 1000*

With the explicit scheme, the equation (3) becomes: *Approximate to the water value to ensure mass conservation
f ,0
( ρ cV ) P
S n
⎡ ∂T S ⎤ n
(T − T 0 )P − ∑ (k T Q )f ,0 ≈ ∑ ⎢k ( )(Si − d i )⎥ . (7)
δt f =1 d f =1 ⎣ ∂xi d ⎦ symmetry plane a monitoring node

By assembling equation (7) for all cells with initial and boundary Tb Tb
Ti = 40°C x
conditions, a system of simultaneous equations [ A] ⋅ [T ] = [b] is 0.27 m
formed with nodal temperature [T ] as unknowns.
Figure 5 1D problem descriptions.
Before a new time step, the phase status of a cell is
checked. If the node is liquid and the nodal temperature T P As the brine temperatures are measured on the hour and the
drops lower than the freezing temperature TF , it becomes hourly data is used in the plant control [1], the appropriate
saturated. The node is tagged and the temperature is then estimation of brine temperatures during the hour must be first
reassigned to TF . The latent heat increment ΔQ P
is calculated considered.
from the fictitious sensible heat such that ΔQ = ρ c(TF − T )V . P P P

The ΔQ P is added to the accumulated latent heat Q P for 3.1 Linear Interpolation of Brine Temperature
P
subsequent time steps until the Q equals the total latent heat With linear interpolation of hourly brine temperatures in
ρ LV P
of the control volume. At this stage, the control volume Figure 2, the boundary condition can be considered a fairly close
becomes solid, the tag on the cell is removed and the latent heat approximation of the real brine temperature and can be used as
increment is no longer calculated (Figure 4). the base case. It takes 77.3 hours before all water are frozen.
Figure 6 shows the temperature profiles at various time instants
Input data
while Figure 7 displays the temperature changes with time at
Data initilisation
monitoring nodes distributed throughout the domain (Figure 5),
Start time increment loop the estimated ice thickness from the calculated latent energy [4]
Start solution loop and associated rate as well as the internal energy and cooling
Check phase status of each node load. The energy loss at an instant time t is obtained from the
and specify appropriate properties
difference between the current and initial internal energy values.
Formulate & solve the energy equation The results exhibit many characteristics of the simulation
For saturated nodes, calculated latent heat with constant brine temperature [4]. The rate of heat transfer is
from fictitious sensible heat
NO
predominantly controlled by the position of the freezing front.
Prescribed number of time step is reached
Liquid cells cool down slowly; once a control volume is frozen, its
stop
temperature drops rapidly such that the temperature gradient in

Figure 4 Explicit solution algorithm. the ice is almost linear and the freezing of the next cell starts
shortly afterwards (Figure 6). The freezing front advances at a

3. 1D Case Study slowing rate and exhibits similar characteristics to the decreasing

A 0.135-m-long domain of water (shaded area in Figure 5) cooling load. The rate of ice formation or thickness changes is

with unit square cross section is initially at temperature still exhibit the cyclic numerical errors from the fixed grid scheme

Ti = 40°C . Then, the boundary temperature at x = 0.135 m is because the front has to wait for a short interval before a new

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node starts to freeze as the front progresses from one control 3.2 Constant Average Brine Temperature
volume to the next [4]. As it takes 77.3 hours for fully freezing all water when the
Due to the varying values of the brine temperature, nodal brine temperature variation is linearly interpolated, the averaged
temperatures fluctuate with the brine temperature. From Figure 7, brine temperature over 78 hours of -5.996°C is used for the next
this fluctuation can be seen to diffuse deeply into the domain. comparison (Figure 8). When the average brine temperature is
The temperature variation is particularly pronounced in the frozen used, only the result characteristics of problems with constant
region but is reduced with increasing distances from the boundary temperature [4] are obtained with many differences due
boundary. This variation also triggers some small amount of heat to the brine temperature variations. The time taken for the water
transfer into the domain through the boundary when the brine to be fully frozen is slightly shorter at 76.8 hours. The difference
temperature increases. In short, the brine temperature cycles can in ice thickness is quite large when compared with results from
be observed in both the ice thickness and energy plots. the interpolated brine temperature simulation. The difference in
energy loss is also significant.
40
1 hr These differences make the use of average brine
30 temperature an inappropriate approximation even though its use
temperature T, °C

10 hr
20 would greatly simplify the plant controls. Thus the step brine
temperature is considered next.
10
20 hr
40
0
40 hr
30
-10 80 hr
temperature T, °C

0.000 0.025 0.050 0.075 0.100 0.125 20

position x, m increasing x
10
Figure 6 1D case study 1: Temperature distributions.
0

40 -10

100
energy loss difference, MJ/m ice thickness difference, mm

30
6 savg − sinterp
temperature T, °C

thickness difference, %
80
20 4
increasing x 60
10 2
40
0
0
-2 20
-10
-4 0
25 100(savg − sinterp)/sinterp
0.125 -6 -20
change rate ds/dt, mm/hr

thickness
2

20 15
ice thickness s, m

0.100 2.0
Uavg − Uinterp
15
loss difference, %

10
0.075 1.0
10

0.050 thickness 5
5 0.0
change rate
0.025 0 -1.0 0

0.000 -5 100(Uavg − Uinterp)/Uinterp

80 8 -2.0
-5
2
cooling load dU/dt, kW/m

0 20 40 60 80
2
energy loss U, MJ/m

60 energy loss 6
time t, hr

4 Figure 8 1D case study 2: Temperatures at monitored nodes as

40
well as ice thickness and energy plots as compared against the
2
20 linear interpolation case study 1.
cooling load
0
3.3 Step Brine Temperature
0
0 20 40 60 80 If the step values, in which the brine temperature is kept
time t, hr
constant during the hour and jumps to the next measured value,
Figure 7 1D case study 1: Temperatures at monitored nodes are used instead of the linear interpolation of hourly brine
(Figure 5), ice thickness and energy plots. temperatures, the results – such as temperature distributions and
ice thickness, etc. – are still similar but with more stepping
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shapes (Figure 9). It takes 77.5 hours to fully freeze all water. the total area is modelled. The discretised domain consists of 26
The difference in ice thickness is small when compared with the × 13 × 120 cells while δ t = 10 s which satisfy the combined cell
results from interpolated brine temperature and fall within the - size/time step restrictions [4].
0.592 – 0.900 mm range with the average and SD values of -
0.010 mm and 0.310 mm. If the percentage difference in ice 4.1 Linear Interpolation of Brine Temperature
thickness is considered, the difference is within the range of -6.87 With linear interpolation of hourly brine temperatures in
– 1.614% but with the average and SD values of -0.115% and Figure 2, the boundary condition can be considered a close
0.761% during the 80-hours period. The differences in internal approximation of the real brine temperature and used as the
energy losses are also acceptable when compared with the reference case. It takes just under 89.5 hours before all water are
results from interpolated brine temperature. The differences fall frozen.
2
within the -0.230 – 0.309 MJ/m range with the average and SD
2 2 0.56 m 0.27 m
values of -0.014 MJ/m and 0.117 MJ/m . If the percentage
d
difference in loss internal energy is considered, the difference is
within the range of -2.862 – 0.757% but with the average and SD
c
values of -0.080% and 0.383% only. 1.2 m

b
40

30 e
a
temperature T, °C

0.52 m
20

increasing x a) block geometry b) monitored cells

10

Figure 10 Geometry and domain of ice block.

0

-10 Selected locations in the ice block are monitored (Figure

2.0 4
10b) and the temperatures and ice fractions at these cells are
energy loss difference, MJ/m ice thickness difference, mm

shown in Figure 11. It is noted that the values at cells b and c are
thickness difference, %

1.5 2
100(sstep − sinterp)/sinterp
similar with only small delays for c, indicating that the side
1.0 0
freezing fronts dominates the solidification process while the
0.5
-2 freezing front from the bottom exerts much less influences.
0.0
-4 Although the uppermost-centre node d experiences a sharp
-0.5 sstep − sinterp temperature drop early on, it still remains unfrozen until the last
-6
-1.0 moments due to the fact that the ambient temperature is not
2

0.50 1
100(Ustep − Uinterp)/Uinterp sufficiently low to properly induce an effective freezing process.
loss difference, %

0.25 0 Coupled with the fact that it takes more than 10 hours longer for
the domain to be fully frozen when compared to the 1D test case,
0.00 -1
the importance of the ambient temperature on the determination

-0.25 Ustep − Uinterp of overall freezing duration is clearly demonstrated.

-2
For overall results, the loss of internal energy and fraction of
-0.50
-3 ice in the block are displayed. The characteristic fluctuations of
0 20 40 60 80
results with the brine temperature variations are clearly observed.
time t, hr
Figure 9 1D case study 3: Temperatures at monitored nodes as
4.2 Average Brine Temperature
well as ice thickness and energy plots as compared against the
As previous, the averaged brine temperature over 90 hours
linear interpolation case study 1.
of -6.46°C is used for the next comparison. It takes just under
88.5 hours before all water are frozen in keeping with the trend in
4. 3D Case Study
1D simulations. As in the 1D case, the differences in water
The developed program [4] is employed to study the freezing
fraction and energy loss are quite large when compared with the
process in industrial ice block manufacturing with the actual size
results from interpolated brine temperature changes as shown in
of ice block shown in Figure 10a. Initially, temperature of water is
Figure 12.
Ti = 40 °C throughout. The boundary conditions on the top end
is assumed to be Tb = 0°C . Due to symmetry, only one-fourth of
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 40 40

30 30

temperature T, °C
temperature T, °C

20 pt d 20 pt d
10 pt a pt b 10 pt a pt b
pt c pt c
0 0

-10 pt e -10 pt e

energy loss difference, MJ cell water fraction difference, %

1.00 100
pt c
pt d 80
cell water fraction

0.75 100(favg − finterp)

pt a pt b pt c 60
0.50 pt e pt b pt d
40
pt e
0.25
20 pt a

0.00 0
25 1.0 0.50 8
100(favg − finterp)

total fraction difference, %

energy loss
total energy loss U, MJ

0.25 6
total water fraction f

20 0.8
0.00 4
15 0.6 -0.25 2

10 0.4 -0.50 0

-0.75 -2
5 water fraction 0.2
-1.00 Uavg − Uinterp -4

0 0.0 -1.25 -6
0 20 40 60 80 0 20 40 60 80

time t, hr time t, hr

Figure 11 3D case study 1: Temperature & ice fraction at Figure 12 3D case study 2: Temperature & ice fraction at
monitoring cells as well as total energy loss and water fraction. monitoring cells as well as total energy loss and water fraction.

4.3 Step Brine Temperature
If the step values are used instead of the linear interpolation
of hourly brine temperatures, the overall results are quite similar
even though some differences in some individual cells are
comparatively larger than others (Figure 13). The difference in
total water fraction is small when compared with the results from
interpolated brine temperature such that the differences fall within
the -0.531 – 0.678% range with the average and SD values of -
0.001% and 0.221% or in the order of 1/10th compared to the
constant brine temperature simulation (Figure 12). For the total
internal energy loss, the differences fall within the -0.106 – 0.093
MJ range with the average and SD of -0.002 MJ and 0.038 MJ,
respectively.
5. Conclusion
The ice formation simulation with real hourly
temperatures by the finite volume method with the fixed grid and
the latent heat by fictitious sensible heat schemes is successfully
performed for 1D and 3D test cases. Three different temperature
estimations between the hours are considered – the linear
interpolation, constant average and step values. The linear
interpolation best emulates the real changes but requires more
detailed analyses for on-site plant control. The average brine
temperature, while is able to predict the overall trend, can not
capture the variations within the domain during the freezing
period. Hence, it is not suitable for further uses in the real
optimisation of plant operating conditions. The results from the
step approximation differ slightly from those of linear interpolation
and can probably be used for the existing hourly plant control [1]
instead.
The future works includes the analyses of simulated data for
better ice formation approximation which is in immediate demand
for the plant control as the current approximation method by
tabulate energy loss data [1] was found the overestimate the
number of ready-for-sell ice blocks by some 200 to 400 blocks
out of the total number of 2600 [5]. Later, the programs should be
used to study effects of various parameters, such as the brine
brine and ambient temperatures, brine level, mould thickness and sizes
on the ice formation rate so that a more efficient plant control and
design can be formulated and obtained.

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 6. Acknowledgements
40
Special thanks are due to Dr. Naebboon Hoonchareon and
30
Miss Thitima Lertpiya from the Department of Electrical
temperature T, °C

20 pt d Engineering, Chulalongkorn University as well as the Siam

10 pt a pt b Scholars Co., Ltd., Bangkok.
pt c
0
References
-10 pt e
1. Lertpiya, T. “Energy Management System for Block-Ice
energy loss difference, MJ cell water fraction difference, %

5.0
pt b Factory using TOD and TOU Tariff”, M. Eng. Thesis,
2.5 pt a
Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of
0.0
Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, 2005.
-2.5 pt e 2. Hoonchareon, N. and Lertpiya, T. “Private Communication”,
-5.0 pt c 2004.
-7.5 3. Prapainop, R. and Maneeratana, K. “Simulation of ice
100(fstep − finterp) pt d
-10.0 formation by the finite volume method”, Songklanakarin
0.10 0.8
Journal of Science and Technology, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 55-
total fraction difference, %

0.05 Ustep − Uinterp 0.6

70, 2004.
0.4
0.00 4. Meneeratana, K. “Simulation of ice formation by the
0.2
-0.05 unstructured finite volume method”, Proceedings of the 1st
0.0
-0.10 E-NETT Conference. Ambassador City Jomtien, Chonburi,
-0.2
100(fstep − finterp) code ECB02, pp. 211-216, 11-13 May 2005.
-0.15 -0.4
5. Hoonchareon, N. “Private Communication”, 2007.
-0.20 -0.6
0 20 40 60 80

time t, hr
Figure 13 3D case study 3: Temperature & ice fraction at
monitoring cells as well as total energy loss and water fraction.

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