Everybody is wondering this year when they're gonna get out on the ice...............

When does ice freeze together?

Ice is always exposed to a certain amount of air humidity and always emits moisture by melting. When this moisture re-freezes, the ice sticks together.

The colder the ice is, the easier it is for the moisture to freeze. If defrosted water arises on the surface of an iceberg in a reservoir, then this water flows down the ice and freezes on the pieces of ice, it passes = the pieces freeze together. This effect becomes stronger, the longer the ice remains and the more moisture there is.

As a result, for example flake ice at -7°C tends to freeze together into lumps after a few hours; this can be delayed by storing the ice in a room chilled to around -5°C.

Chip ice at -0.5°C has the characteristic that the moisture does not re-freeze, as the temperature difference between the ice and the moisture is too low. As a result chip ice can be stored for days at temperatures above 0°C (ideally up to 4° to keep defrosting to a minimum), without freezing together. A light frozen layer merely forms on the surface, while underneath the ice remains loose and granular.

Bulk weight of the ice:

When calculating the storage volume the bulk weight is important:

• 1.00 t / m³ for water
• 0.92 t / m³ for block ice
• approx. 0.50 t / m³ for chip ice or flake ice

That means that when storing 1,000 kg of chip ice, a storage area of 2 m³ plus a reserve for the inverted cone = approx. 2.5 - 3 m³ is required.

How fast does ice melt?

The greater the surface of the ice in relation to its volume, the faster the ice melts. i.e.:

• micro ice (with small chip ice particles) melts faster than macro ice (large chip ice particles).
• scale ice (ice thickness of approx. 2 mm) melts faster than macro ice (ice thickness 9.5 mm).

The most common phase transition to ice I_h occurs when liquid water is cooled below 0°C (273.15K, 32°F) at standard atmospheric pressure. It can also deposit from vapour with no intervening liquid phase.

http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=229466ation

In other words, we need cold weather for some good ice. We won't have good ice until we get some.................................