Morphology of a solidifying interface near a spherical particle: disjoining pressure effects.

Abstract

Numerical simulations were conducted to determine the morphology of a solid-liquid interface near an insoluble spherical particle. The model accounts for the undercoolings due to the front's curvature and to the nonretarded van der Waals interactions. Our numerical results show that, in the near-contact region, the interface profile develops a sharp peak whose curvature has a logarithmic singularity. This is in agreement with the asymptotic analysis of a previously published equation for the interface profile.