A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
A study of supercooling in rivers
Abstract The process of supercooling, where turbulent water is cooled below the freezing point, is a critical condition for the formation of suspended frazil and anchor ice in northern rivers. The behaviour of supercooling has been investigated in numerous laboratory studies but there is a comparatively small number of field observations reported in literature. In this study, high-precision water temperature loggers were deployed on three regulated rivers in Alberta, Canada over multiple winters. A total of 696 supercooling events were detected in the recorded temperature time series. The properties of each supercooling event were calculated (e.g., peak supercooling temperature and duration) and analyzed to increase our understanding of the timing, duration and magnitude of supercooling in rivers. The median peak supercooling temperature, duration and cooling rate averaged of all events was −0.013 °C, 4.8 h and − 2.5 × 10−4 °C/min, respectively. Supercooling events with durations of 2 to 14 days were observed to occur relatively frequently which was surprising since the longest event reported in the literature had a duration on the order of 50 h. Preliminary analysis of the longitudinal distribution of supercooling events along the study reaches demonstrated that dam regulation and urbanization may have a significant impact on supercooling in rivers. Comparison of supercooling observed near the left and right banks in one river showed that there were significant differences in the frequency and duration of supercooling events across the channel.
Highlights Supercooling temperatures typically range between 0 and −0.1 °C. Supercooling events can last up to two weeks in duration. Urbanization may impact local ice regime, along with upstream dam regulation. Transverse gradients in supercooling can occur in sufficiently wide rivers.
A study of supercooling in rivers
Abstract The process of supercooling, where turbulent water is cooled below the freezing point, is a critical condition for the formation of suspended frazil and anchor ice in northern rivers. The behaviour of supercooling has been investigated in numerous laboratory studies but there is a comparatively small number of field observations reported in literature. In this study, high-precision water temperature loggers were deployed on three regulated rivers in Alberta, Canada over multiple winters. A total of 696 supercooling events were detected in the recorded temperature time series. The properties of each supercooling event were calculated (e.g., peak supercooling temperature and duration) and analyzed to increase our understanding of the timing, duration and magnitude of supercooling in rivers. The median peak supercooling temperature, duration and cooling rate averaged of all events was −0.013 °C, 4.8 h and − 2.5 × 10−4 °C/min, respectively. Supercooling events with durations of 2 to 14 days were observed to occur relatively frequently which was surprising since the longest event reported in the literature had a duration on the order of 50 h. Preliminary analysis of the longitudinal distribution of supercooling events along the study reaches demonstrated that dam regulation and urbanization may have a significant impact on supercooling in rivers. Comparison of supercooling observed near the left and right banks in one river showed that there were significant differences in the frequency and duration of supercooling events across the channel.
Highlights Supercooling temperatures typically range between 0 and −0.1 °C. Supercooling events can last up to two weeks in duration. Urbanization may impact local ice regime, along with upstream dam regulation. Transverse gradients in supercooling can occur in sufficiently wide rivers.
A study of supercooling in rivers
Boyd, Sean (author) / Ghobrial, Tadros (author) / Loewen, Mark (author) / Jasek, Martin (author) / Evans, Joel (author)
2021-11-29
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
Analysis of the surface energy budget during supercooling in rivers
| Elsevier | 2022
Supercooling: A macroscopic predictive theory
| British Library Conference Proceedings | 1994
Quenching and Supercooling of Refractory Metals
| British Library Online Contents | 1995
Supercooling of metal in fine filters
| British Library Online Contents | 2007
Droplet supercooling in marine icing tests
| Elsevier | 2024