The Fragmentation and Electrification of Freezing Drops

Abstract Drops in the size range 1.2 to 1.9 mm were frozen while floating in a nitrogen stream. Frequency of split-ting and cracking was found to be 80–90% when the gas was dry and 57% when it was saturated with water vapor. During freezing, about half of the drops acquired charges (of both signs) in the order of several tenths of a picoColumb and the same proportion (in separate experiments) produced splinters, giving an average of σ10 splinters per frozen drop.