A complete analytical solution of an integro-differential model describing the transient nucleation of solid particles and their subsequent growth at the intermediate stage of phase transitions in metastable systems is constructed. A Fokker–Plank type equation for the density distribution function is solved exactly for arbitrary nucleation kinetics. A non-linear integral equation with memory kernel connecting the density distribution function and the system supercooling/supersaturation is analytically solved on the basis of the saddle-point method for the Laplace integral. The analytical solution obtained shows that the process at the intermediate stage is divided into three phases: initially the high rate nucleation stage occurs, then this process is accompanied by the particle growth reducing the level of metastability, and finally the mechanism of particle coarsening becomes predominant.

This manuscript is devoted to the nonlinear dynamics of particulate assemblages in metastable liquids, caused by various dynamical laws of crystal growth and nucleation kinetics. First of all, we compare the quasi-steady-state and unsteady-state growth rates of spherical crystals in supercooled and supersaturated liquids. It is demonstrated that the unsteady-state rates transform to the steady-state ones in a limiting case of fine particles. We show that the real crystals evolve slowly in a more actual case of unsteady-state growth laws. Various growth rates of particles are tested against experimental data in metastable liquids. It is demonstrated that the unsteady-state rates describe the nonlinear behaviour of experimental curves with increasing the growth time or supersaturation. Taking this into account, the crystal-size distribution function and metastability degree are analytically found and compared with experimental data on crystallization in inorganic and organic solutions. It is significant that the distribution function is shifted to smaller sizes of particles if we are dealing with the unsteady-state growth rates. In addition, a complete analytical solution constructed in a parametric form is simplified in the case of small fluctuations in particle growth rates. In this case, a desupercooling/desupersaturation law is derived in an explicit form. Special attention is devoted to the biomedical applications for insulin and protein crystallization. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Patterns in soft and biological matters’.

This review article summarizes the main outcomes following from recently developed theories of stable dendritic growth in undercooled one-component and binary melts. The nonlinear heat and mass transfer mechanisms that control the crystal growth process are connected with hydrodynamic flows (forced and natural convection), as well as with the non-local diffusion transport of dissolved impurities in the undercooled liquid phase. The main conclusions following from stability analysis, solvability and selection theories are presented. The sharp interface model and stability criteria for various crystallization conditions and crystalline symmetries met in actual practice are formulated and discussed. The review is also focused on the determination of the main process parameters—the tip velocity and diameter of dendritic crystals as functions of the melt undercooling, which define the structural states and transitions in materials science (e.g. monocrystalline-polycrystalline structures). Selection criteria of stable dendritic growth mode for conductive and convective heat and mass fluxes at the crystal surface are stitched together into a single criterion valid for an arbitrary undercooling. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Transport phenomena in complex systems (part 1)’.

A free dendrite growth under forced fluid flow is analyzed for solidification of a nonisothermal binary system. Using an approach to dendrite growth developed by Bouissou and Pelcé [ Phys. Rev. A 40, 6673 (1989)], the analysis is presented for the parabolic dendrite interface with small anisotropy of surface energy growing at arbitrary Péclet numbers. The stable growth mode is obtained from the solvability condition giving the stability criterion for the dendrite tip velocity $V$ and dendrite tip radius $\rho$ as a function of the growth Péclet number, flow Péclet number, and Reynolds number. In limiting cases, the obtained stability criterion presents known criteria for small and high growth Péclet numbers of the solidifying system with and without convective fluid flow.