Premelting between Single Silica Particle and Ice during Thermal Regelation

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  • 1. College of Metrology Measurement and Instrument, China Jiliang University, Hangzhou 310018, China
    2. School of Energy and Power Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China 
    3. Leo Group Co., Ltd, East Industry Center, Wenling 317500, China
    4. School of Energy Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China

网络出版日期: 2026-01-05

基金资助

This study is supported by The National Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars of China (No. 12102418), Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (No. LQ21A020007) and Youth Science and Technology Innovation Personnel Training Project (Category B) (No.2021YW48).

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Science Press, Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, CAS and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2026

Premelting between Single Silica Particle and Ice during Thermal Regelation

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  • 1. College of Metrology Measurement and Instrument, China Jiliang University, Hangzhou 310018, China
    2. School of Energy and Power Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China 
    3. Leo Group Co., Ltd, East Industry Center, Wenling 317500, China
    4. School of Energy Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China

Online published: 2026-01-05

Supported by

This study is supported by The National Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars of China (No. 12102418), Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (No. LQ21A020007) and Youth Science and Technology Innovation Personnel Training Project (Category B) (No.2021YW48).

Copyright

Science Press, Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, CAS and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2026

摘要

当颗粒嵌入冰中接近其整体融化温度时,颗粒与冰之间会形成一个预融膜,这个过程被称为"界面预融化"。在温度梯度的影响下,预熔膜的厚度发生变化,从而调节冰-颗粒相互作用的强度,并产生净压力,驱动颗粒向更高的温度迁移,这种现象被称为"热再凝"。热再凝现象与土壤冻胀、生物冻存和冰芯古气候学方法有关。为了进一步研究热再凝中的热力学和动力学原理,我们搭建了温度梯度控制平台和单层可视化聚二甲基硅氧烷( PDMS )芯片,用于单个二氧化硅颗粒的热再凝实验。实验中,我们测量了单个粒子在冰中不同位置的迁移速度,发现粒子的热再凝可以分为高速和低速两个阶段。随着颗粒接近冰-水界面,迁移速度急剧增大。通过将实验数据与预熔化理论相结合,我们发现观察到的行为与半径为12.5 μm和10 μm的范德华力的预期在唯象学上是一致的。然而,当颗粒尺寸减小到7.5 μm时,观察到的行为与无延迟的范德华力的预期在现象学上是一致的。此外,在不同的温度梯度和颗粒尺寸下,在接近273.15 K时,预熔膜的厚度保持在20 nm ~ 60 nm的范围内。但在相同的过冷度下,预熔膜的厚度随着温度梯度的增大而增大。在提取的参数中,与范德华力有关的参数λ与温度梯度呈线性关系。这些实验结果为进一步理解热再凝提供了重要的定量信息,并为优化相关应用提供了理论依据。

本文引用格式

YANG Caihao, HU Wei, XU Fei, BAO Fubing, GAO Xiaoyan, ZHANG Yaning . Premelting between Single Silica Particle and Ice during Thermal Regelation[J]. 热科学学报, 2026 , 35(1) : 303 -314 . DOI: 10.1007/s11630-026-2219-5

Abstract

When particles are embedded in the ice near its bulk melting temperature, a premelted film forms between the particles and ice in a process known as “interfacial premelting”. Under the influence of a temperature gradient, the premelted film varies in thickness, modulating the strength of ice-particle interactions and producing a net pressure that drives the particles to migrate towards higher temperatures in a phenomenon known as “thermal regelation”. The phenomenon of thermal regelation is related to frost heave of soil, cryopreservation of organisms and methods of ice core paleoclimatology. In order to further investigate the principles of thermodynamics and dynamics in thermal regelation, we built a temperature gradient control platform and a single layer visual polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) chip for thermal regelation experiments of individual silica particles. In the experiment, we measured the migration velocity of individual particles at different locations in the ice, and found that the thermal regelation of particles can be divided into high speed and low speed stages. As the particles approach the ice-water interface, the migration velocity increases dramatically. By combining the experimental data with the premelting theory, we found that the observed behavior is phenomenologically consistent with expectations for van der Waals force with radii of 12.5 μm and 10 μm. However, when the particle size was reduced to 7.5 μm, the observed behavior was phenomenologically consistent with expectations for undelayed van der Waals force. In addition, under different temperature gradients and particle sizes, the thickness of the premelted film was maintained in the range of 20 nm–60 nm close to 273.15 K. However, under the same supercooling degree, the thickness of the premelted film increases with the increased of temperature gradient. Among the extracted parameters, the parameter λ, which was related to the van der Waals force, was linearly related to the temperature gradient. These experimental results not only provided important quantitative information for further understanding of thermal regelation but also provided a theoretical basis for optimizing related applications.

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