The Slow Growth of Ice Crystals in Water

• Main Author: Colbeck, Samuel C.
• Other Authors: COLD REGIONS RESEARCH AND ENGINEERING LAB HANOVER NH
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1992
• Subjects: Snow; Ice and Permafrost; Crystallography; Mechanics; *WATER; *ICE; *CRYSTAL GROWTH; RATIOS; THEORY; KINETICS; DISKS; SHAPE; RATES; CRYSTALS; *SLOW; AS91D; FRAZIL; SLUSH; PE61101A; Ice; permafrost
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA251864; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA251864

Ice crystals were slowly grown in supercooled water at growth rates spanning those for slush to those for frazil. All of the crystals were disks with aspect ratios between 2 and 35, which increased with growth rate. The growth rates were much less than expected from theory, possibly because of crowding in the experiment. The shapes showed a gradual transition from well rounded to highly faceted as the growth rate increased. Even in the lower range of growth rates the crystals do not undergo metamorphism during growth, so the kinetics of crystal growth controls the shape over the entire range of growth rates investigated here. This explains why all of the crystals were disk shaped, as opposed to the well-rounded crystals seen in slush.