State-of-the-art review of frost deposition on flat surfaces

•Comparative study of predictive methods of frost development on surfaces.•Gathering of data points from literature for frost thickness and density.•Horizontal original case extended with vertical and parallel plate configurations.•Identification of the main issues in the field of modelling of frost.

This paper presents a comparative study of predictive methods of frost growth and densification on horizontal, vertical and parallel flat surfaces. The study treats two aspects of frost formation: thickness and density. It focuses on the comparison between four different existing theoretical models or empirical correlations and a database gathering almost 382 test points available in the literature for average frost thickness. Furthermore, five correlations are compared to 149 data points for average frost density. Impacts of air velocity, relative humidity and wall temperature are studied. The latter is found to have a significant impact on frost development. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of the predictive methods are proposed. This study leads to the identification of the main issues in the field of modelling of frost deposition on horizontal, vertical and parallel flat plates.