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The calculations of physicists are fundamental, but they will be useful for metallurgists.
Photo Credit: Rodion Narudinov
Scientific Frontline: Extended "At a Glance" Summary
The Core Concept: A physical model demonstrating that snowflakes (ice dendrites) formed under terrestrial conditions possess complex, non-smooth, and asymmetrical shapes, refuting the popular notion of perfect geometric symmetry.
Key Distinction/Mechanism: Unlike the idealized growth observed in microgravity where crystals form symmetrically in a stationary environment, terrestrial snowflake formation is heavily influenced by gravity and convection (heat transfer). These external forces disrupt the stationary environment, causing the crystal to grow imperfectly and unevenly.
Origin/History: Published by physicists at Ural Federal University (UrFU) in the journal Acta Materialia on February 12, 2026, following a comprehensive analysis of experimental data on ice crystal growth accumulated over several decades.
Major Frameworks/Components:
- Convection & Gravity: The primary environmental variables identified as the cause of asymmetry in terrestrial crystal growth.
- Supercooling Dynamics: The relationship between water supercooling and the growth speed/curvature radius of dendrite tips.
- Microgravity Comparison: The use of space-based experimental data to contrast "ideal" stationary growth with "real-world" terrestrial growth.
Branch of Science: Physics (Thermodynamics, Crystallography) and Materials Science.
Future Application: The methodology is expected to be applied in metallurgy to calculate how alloys harden and predict defect formation, directly improving the quality of industrial materials.
Why It Matters: This research corrects a fundamental scientific misconception about natural symmetry and provides a more realistic model for crystal growth, which is critical for controlling material properties in industrial manufacturing.
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| Lyubov Toropova, Associate Professor Photo Credit: Rodion Narudinov |
UrFU researchers have found out how the pattern of ice dendrites forms – branching ice crystals (frosty patterns or glass snowflakes) – on Earth and in space. Scientists have summarized the accumulated experience over the past decades and analyzed all known experimental data on ice crystal growth. It turned out that, due to convection (heat transfer) and gravity in terrestrial conditions, the shape of a crystal grows imperfectly, and the snowflake turns out to be asymmetric. The results of the study were published in the journal Acta Materialia.
"We have refuted the widespread notion that the shape of a snowflake is described as a regular geometric shape. The study showed that, in general, the snowflake has a complex, non smooth and asymmetrical shape," says Lyubov Toropova, co-author of the work, Head Specialist at UrFU Laboratory of Mathematical Modeling of Physical and Chemical Processes in Multiphase Media.
The formation of an ideal crystal structure is hindered by various terrestrial processes, including convection, which can affect the shape of the crystal and make it imperfect. The degree of supercooling of water also depends on the tips of snowflakes (how fast they grow and with what curvature radius). In microgravity, ice dendrites grow in a nearly stationary environment, allowing them to form symmetrically and predictably according to their internal laws of crystallization.
Determining exactly how ice patterns form and how to control their growth conditions is still a challenge for scientists. To answer these questions, physicists must solve problems such as determining the shape of the surface of ice crystals, the stability of their growth modes, the transition from an initial unstable stage of growth to a stationary one, and many other conditions.
For the first time, UrFU physicists have summarized and analyzed all known experimental data together, including data obtained in microgravity and space. This provides a new, more accurate, and realistic, non-idealized model of the shape of a snowflake, which is an advance compared to simplified representations.
The physicists' model describes fundamental natural processes. However, knowledge of the exact shape of crystals and an understanding of the mechanisms of dendrite growth would also be useful for industrialists, who, for example, would be able to calculate how alloys harden and what defects form during the process, directly affecting the quality of the final product.
The scientists plan to expand the methodology to other substances and find out how crystals form in various materials.
Published in journal: Acta Materialia
Authors: Dmitri V. Alexandrov, Irina E. Koroznikova, Alexandra E. Glebova, and Liubov V. Toropova
Source/Credit: Ural Federal University | Anastasia Pyankova
Reference Number: phy021226_01
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