A combined experimental and computational study of phase-change dynamics and flow inside a sessile water droplet freezing due to interfacial heat transfer

•Heterogeneous nucleation sites form at the initial stages of freezing•Droplets freeze inwards and along the direction of gravity•Recirculation regions inside the droplet are suppressed as freezing progresses•Temperature and pressure distributions diminish as the freezing front advances•Freezing time is strongly affected by the droplet size