Scaling laws for two-dimensional dendritic crystal growth in a narrow channel.

Abstract

We investigate analytically and computationally the dynamics of two-dimensional needle crystal growth from the melt in a narrow channel. Our analytical theory predicts that, in the low supersaturation limit, the growth velocity V decreases in time t as a power law V∼t^{-2/3}, which we validate by phase-field and dendritic-needle-network simulations. Simulations further reveal that, above a critical channel width Λ≈5l_{D}, where l_{D} is the diffusion length, needle crystals grow with a constant V<V_{s}, where V_{s} is the free-growth needle crystal velocity, and approaches V_{s} in the limit Λ≫l_{D}.