Phase-field investigation of effects of surface-tension anisotropy on deterministic sidebranching in solutal dendritic growth

Using the phase-field method, effects of the surface-tension anisotropy on sidebranching are investigated during solutal dendritic growth. The results show that without external perturbations the surface tension anisotropy has decisive effects on sidebranching and the nonmonotonic behavior of the solute profile along the interface characterizes the evolution of sidebranches. The scaled dendritic profiles indicate that the dendrites have the self-affine primary trunks but with different sidebranches for different anisotropy at the same evolution time. The dynamic evolution process of dendritic growth with low surface tension anisotropy reveals the same generating place of sidebranch in the scaled dendritic profile during the dendritic growth.