Phase Transitions in Liquids and Solids: Solidification and Melting

Liquid-solid (solidification) and solid-liquid (melting) phase transitions are certainly among the most widespread in nature and many of them also have very important implications. For example, think of the formation of ice crystals due to solidification of liquid water and the inverse phase transition involved in meteorological phenomena, as well as melting or solidification of metals or metal alloys. We indicated in the preceding chapter that the properties of a solid (in particular, its mechanical and thermal properties) are very significantly a function of the kinetics of solidification and more specifically the size of the microstructures formed during the phase transition.