Use of Compressed Air for Supercooled Fog Dispersal

Abstract

Experiments have been performed under controlled and free environment conditions to determine the technical feasibility of using the cooling resulting from the adiabatic expansion of compressed air to initiate ice crystal production in a supercooled fog. These experiments have shown that for most supercooled temperatures, approximately 103 cm3 of air when compressed to 60 psig and released through a supersonic nozzle will produce the same number of ice crystals as does the evaporation of 1 cm3 of liquid propane. It is estimated that a compressed air supercooled fog dispersal system would consume approximately 6% of the hydrocarbon fuel presently consumed by operational systems using liquid propane spray.