Pattern of inclusions inside rippled icicles

Ladan, John; Morris, Stephen W.

doi:10.1103/physreve.106.054211

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…They then melted each icicle from two directions to expose an axial cross section of the icicle's core. This sectioning revealed that rippled icicles Credit: J. Ladan and S. W. Morris [1] contain a series of chevron-like internal structures that connect to the ripples at the surface. These chevrons are each composed of a series of crescent-shaped inclusions of liquid water in which the dissolved impurity is concentrated.…”

Section: By Marric Stephensmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One feature that has eluded description is the horizontal surface ripples that sometimes develop as an icicle grows. Morris and his colleague John Ladan, both at the University of Toronto, have now identified the mechanism by which such ripples form on lab-grown icicles [1]. Morris notes, however, that the cause of the underlying instability remains unknown.…”

Section: By Marric Stephensmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Icicle Structure Reveals Growth Dynamics

Stephens¹

2022

Physics

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Section: By Marric Stephensmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: By Marric Stephensmentioning

confidence: 99%

Icicle Structure Reveals Growth Dynamics

Stephens¹

2022

Physics

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On icicle ripples

Worster

2024

J Eng Math

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Natural icicles have an overall conical shape modulated by surface ripples. It has been noted from many observations of icicles formed in nature and in the laboratory that the wavelength of the ripples has a very narrow spectrum between about 8 and 12 mm and that, as time evolves, the phase of the ripples migrates upwards. In this pedagogical review, I explore some of the physical mechanisms that can cause and mediate the formation and migration of ripples on icicles using simple mathematical models. To keep the mathematics more straightforward and transparent, I confine attention to two dimensions. A key physical parameter is the surface tension between the film of water that coats an icicle and the air that surrounds it, which causes a phase shift between the film–air interface and the ice–film interface. I show that the wavelength of ripples is dominantly proportional to the cube root of the square of the gravity-capillary length times the thickness of the water film. At high film-flow rates, advection-dominated heat transfer coupled with the interfacial phase shift becomes the dominant driver of instability. Gibbs–Thomson undercooling provides an unexpectedly large stabilisation of small wavelengths at these large flow rates, sufficient to maintain wavelength selection at millimetre scales.

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