The control of ice slurry systems: an overview

This article outlines some typical control strategies for the basic components of an ice slurry system. From this review it became apparent that the control of terminal units is not fundamentally different from the control of classical single-phase secondary cooling systems, except from the fact that it must be based on the use of local pumps and the ON–OFF operation of actuators to avoid ice plugging problems. The safe control of the ice generator can be ensured with a simple thermostat, although the resulting ice concentration control would be approximate. It was also demonstrated that any ice accumulation in the storage tank would not prevent the ice slurry system from functioning safely. As a final precaution, it was not recommended to operate an ice slurry generator at low solute concentrations and temperatures greater than −3/−4 °C due to the risk of plugging up the distribution loop and causing mechanical wear to the ice generator.