Dynamic simulations of interface morphologies in free dendritic growth

We study the evaluation of interface morphologies in free dendritic growth with heat or mass transport by either diffusion alone or by both diffusion and convection. This is done by quantitative numerical simulations; in part icular, we try to capture the effects of crystalline anisotropy accurately, avoiding artefacts of the numerical grid. Tracking the interface dynamical ly, we find oscillating structures that can be related to transient behavio ur in extended systems. The set-up of our program allows us to directly com pare the effects of diffusion on the evolving patterns versus those of conv ection. Our aim is to study how the morphology diagram suggested by Brener et al. (Phys. Rev. E 54 (1996) 2714) is to be extended as a function of par ameters describing convention. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights re served.