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Updated: Apr 3, 2026
08:55
Methods of Ex Situ and In Situ Investigations of Structural Transformations: The Case of Crystallization of Metallic Glasses
Published on: June 7, 2018
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Solidification of a disk-shaped crystal from a weakly supercooled binary melt.
David W Rees Jones1, Andrew J Wells1
1Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics, Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Clarendon Laboratory, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PU, UK.
Physical Review. E, Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics
|September 19, 2015
Summary
Frazil ice, or ice crystals grown from salty water, form thin disks because heat and salt removal limit growth differently in different directions. New calculations improve predictions for ice crystal growth in environmental models.
Area of Science:
- Physical Chemistry
- Materials Science
- Geophysics
Background:
- Ice crystal growth from liquid, especially with salt, is less studied than vapor-phase growth.
- Frazil ice forms from supercooled saline solutions, exhibiting unique growth characteristics.
Purpose of the Study:
- To numerically model the growth of disk-shaped ice crystals from pure and binary melts.
- To identify key physical mechanisms controlling ice crystal growth, including heat and solute diffusion.
- To develop an improved parametrization for ice crystal growth in environmental models.
Main Methods:
- Numerical simulations of crystal growth in pure and binary melts.
- Analysis of factors influencing growth: axial vs. radial growth, solute effects, thermal properties.
- Comparison of simulation results with existing scaling-law parametrizations.
Main Results:
- Crystal growth is limited by diffusive removal of latent heat and rejected salt.
- Disk-shaped crystals form due to faster radial than axial growth.
- Previous parametrizations underestimate growth rates for low-aspect-ratio disks by 10-100 times.
Conclusions:
- Diffusive transport of heat and salt are critical factors in frazil ice formation.
- Accurate modeling requires accounting for anisotropic growth and solute effects.
- A new parametrization is proposed for enhanced accuracy in environmental simulations.
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