The rupture and phase-change freezing of water films are phenomena frequently encountered in aircraft icing and thermal anti-icing processes. To elucidate the evolution mechanisms of water film rupture and freezing under cold airflow shear, a coupled rupture–freezing model was developed that incorporates contact-line disjoining pressure and airflow shear stress. Based on this model, the rivuletIcingFoam module was developed in OpenFOAM. Using a flat plate as the reference configuration, the effects of temperature control coefficient, airflow shear stress, and contact angle on the coupled rupture–freezing dynamics of water films were investigated. Results reveal that increasing the temperature control coefficient markedly decreases the maximum ice thickness while accelerating the growth of normalized wetting and freezing areas. When the wall temperature approaches the phase-change temperature, water film freezing is suppressed whereas flow inertia is enhanced. A higher dimensionless airflow shear stress τ substantially increases rivulet velocity, at τ = 40, the rivulet ice length is 4.3 times that at τ = 4. Airflow shear stress destabilizes the film by amplifying the velocity difference between capillary ridges and rivulets, thereby promoting tensile rupture and generating a larger number of rivulets. Increasing the contact angle intensifies the disjoining pressure, which not only diminishes fingering stability and facilitates rupture but also suppresses lateral spreading, leading to more pronounced water film retraction. This study advances the understanding of water film rupture and freezing, and provides a key reference for developing high-fidelity aircraft icing simulations.
CHANG et al. (Sun,) studied this question.