Snowflake growth provides a fascinating example of spontaneous pattern formation in nature. Attempts to understand this phenomenon have led to important insights in non-equilibrium dynamics observed in various active scientific fields, ranging from pattern formation in physical and chemical systems, to self-assembly problems in biology. Yet, very few models currently succeed in reproducing the diversity of snowflake forms in three dimensions, and the link between model parameters and thermodynamic quantities is not established. Here, we report a modified phase field model that describes the subtlety of the ice vapour phase transition, through anisotropic water molecules attachment and condensation, surface diffusion, and strong anisotropic surface tension, that guarantee the anisotropy, faceting and dendritic growth of snowflakes. We demonstrate that this model reproduces the growth dynamics of the most challenging morphologies of snowflakes from the Nakaya diagram. We find that the growth dynamics of snow crystals matches the selection theory, consistently with previous experimental observations. npj Computational Materials (2017) 3:15 ;
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.