To obtain its average particle size and size distribution

ice slurry treated with ethylene glycol was produced through a vacuum method

and images of ice particles in the ice slurry were obtained using a microscopic observation system. The effects of the stirring speed

initial ethylene glycol concentration

and ice packing fraction (IPF) on the average particle size were investigated experimentally. Meanwhile

the experimental particle size distributions were also compared with normal

log-normal

Gamma

and Weibull distributions. The results indicate that the size distributions of the ice particles under different experiment conditions were in accordance with the Gamma distribution. The average particle size of the ice crystals measured at five stirring speeds of 100

200

300

400

and 500 r/min were 46.5

46.0

44.0

44.2

and 45.2 μm

respectively

which indicates that the stirring speed has little influence on the average particle size. The higher the concentration of ethylene glycol

the smaller the average particle size

which was decreased to 74.8 μm from 34.3 μm when the concentration of ethylene glycol was varied from 1% to 7%. Moreover

the average particle size of the ice crystals increased with an increase in the ice packing fraction. However

the amplitude was not clear until the ice packing fraction reached a certain threshold of about 18%.