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We study spacing selection in directional solidification of Al-Cu alloys under transient growth conditions. New experimental results are presented which reveal that dendritic spacing versus solidification rate evolves in an almost step-wise fashion, consistent with previous theoretical predictions of Langer and co-workers. Phase field simulations of directional solidification with dynamical growth conditions approximating those in the experiments confirm this behavior. Changes in dendrite arm spacing is shown to be consistent with dendrite instabilities confined, initially, to sub-domains, rather than the entire system. This is due to the rapid variation in growth conditions, which prevent the system from adapting as a whole but, rather, in a succession of quasi-isolated domains.

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