This comprehensive work explores interfacial instability and pattern formation in dynamic systems away from the equilibrium state in solidification and crystal growth. Further, this significantly expanded 2nd edition introduces and reviews the progress made during the last two decades. In particular, it describes the most prominent pattern formation phenomena commonly observed in material processing and crystal growth in the framework of the previously established interfacial wave theory, including free dendritic growth from undercooled melt, cellular growth and eutectic growth in directional solidification, as well as viscous fingering in Hele-Shaw flow. It elucidates the key problems, systematically derives their mathematical solutions by pursuing a unified, asymptotic approach, and finally carefully examines these results by comparing them with the available experimental results. The asymptotic approach described here will be useful for the investigation of pattern formation phenomena occurring in a much broader class of inhomogeneous dynamical systems. In addition, the results on global stability and selection mechanisms of pattern formation will be of particular interest to researchers working on material processing and crystal growth. The stability mechanisms of a curved front and the pattern formation have been fundamental subjects in the areas of condensed-matter physics, materials science, crystal growth, and fluid mechanics for some time now. This book offers a stimulating and insightful introduction for all physicists, engineers and applied mathematicians working in the fields of soft condensed-matter physics, materials science, mechanical and chemical engineering, fluid dynamics, and nonlinear sciences.

For the last several years, the study of interfacial instability and pattern formation phenomena has preoccupied many researchers in the broad area of nonlinear science. These phenomena occur in a variety of dynamical sys tems far from equilibrium. In many practically very important physical sys tems some fascinating patterns are always displayed at the interface between solid and liquid or between two liquids. Two prototypes of these phenomena are dendrite growth in solidification and viscous fingering in a Hele-Shaw cell. These two phenomena occur in completely different scientific fields, but both are described by similar nonlinear free boundary problems of partial differential-equation systems; the boundary conditions on the interface for both cases contain a curvature operator involving the surface tension, which is nonlinear. Moreover, both cases raise the same challenging theoretical is sues, interfacial instability mechanisms and pattern selection, and it is now found that these issues can be solved by the same analytical approach. Thus, these two phenomena are regarded as special examples of a class of nonlinear pattern formation phenomena in nature, and they are the prominent topics of the new interdisciplinary field of nonlinear science. This research monograph is based on a series of lectures I have given at McGill University, Canada (1993-1994), Northwestern Poly technical In stitute, China (1994), Aachen University, Germany (1994), and the CRM summer school at Banff, Alberta, Canada (1995).

The processes of freezing and melting were present at the beginnings of the Earth and continue to dominate the natural and industrial worlds. The solidification of a liquid or the melting of a solid involves a complex interplay of many physical effects. This 2001 book presents in a systematic way the field of continuum solidification theory based on instability phenomena. An understanding of the physics is developed by using examples of increasing complexity with the object of creating a deep physical insight applicable to more complex problems. Applied mathematicians, engineers, physicists, and materials scientists will all find this volume of interest.

Advances in Mechanics and Mathematics (AMMA) is intended to bridge the gap by providing multi-disciplinary publications. This volume, AMMA 2002, includes two parts with three articles by four subject experts. Part 1 deals with nonsmooth static and dynamic systems. A systematic mathematical theory for multibody dynamics with unilateral and frictional constraints and a brief introduction to hemivariational inequalities together with some new developments in nonsmooth semi-linear elliptic boundary value problems are presented. Part 2 provides a comprehensive introduction and the latest research on dendritic growth in fluid mechanics, one of the most profound and fundamental subjects in the area of interfacial pattern formation, a commonly observed phenomenon in crystal growth and solidification processes.