Stable Growth of Ice Crystals under Microgravity

Abstract

The ice crystal growth experiments were carried out from December 2008 to February 2009 to understand the mechanisms of the morphological transition. However, the transition was not observed at all in space. Hence, we introduce a two-dimensional model to understand the stabilization mechanisms. From the comparison between the numerical and experimental results, it is found that the stabilization mechanism is the Gibbs-Thomson effect. The convection influence on the ground is also investigated. From the estimation of the Nusselt number, it is found that the convection strongly affects the temperature distribution even though the small supercoolings.