In this study, the feasibility of cooling/freezing of phase change.. materials(PCMs) due to evaporation for cold storage systems was experimentally examined. A pure water was used as the test PCM, since the latent heat due to evaporation of water is about 7 times larger than that due to freezing. A water droplet, the diameter of which was 1-4 mm, was suspended in a test cell by a fine metal wire (O. D.= 100μm),and the cell was suddenly evacuated up to the pressure lower than the triple-point pressure of water, so as to enhance the evaporation from the water surface. Temperature of the droplet was measured by a thermocouple, and the cooling/freezing behavior and the temperature profile of the droplet surface were captured by using a video camera and an IR thermo-camera, respectively. The obtained results showed that the water droplet in the evacuated cell is effectively cooled by the evaporation of water itself, and is frozen within a few seconds through remarkable supercooling state. When the initial temperature of the droplet is slightly higher than the room temperature, boiling phenomena occur in the droplet simultaneously with the freezing due to evaporation. Under such conditions, it was shown that the degree of supercooling of the droplet is reduced by the bubbles generated in the droplet.
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