Kinetics and morphology of nonequilibrium growth of ice in supercooled water

Abstract
The kinetics of free growth of ice in a distilled-water film supercooled to −30°C was studied by the video recording technique in the polarized light. In the supercooling range 12 < ΔT < 16 K, a first-order kinetic morphological transition was observed between the structure formed by needlelike crystals of ice and the quasiadiabatic “structure” of single grains having the shape of planar platelets with the thickness proportional to the thickness of the water film and relative supercooling. It was found that this transition is accompanied by jumplike changes in the main crystallization parameters such as the growth rate of grains, their size and number, their kinetic behavior, and the fractal dimension of the structure.