Phenomenological model of nonequilibrium solidification

•The maximum entropy production principle is considered as a foundation of nonequilibrium pattern formation.•Based on the principle, a simple phenomenological model of dendrite growth is developed.•The model results quantitatively agree with the experimental data.

The maximum entropy production principle is used as a foundation for the nonequilibrium solidification theory. Based on this principle, a new simple model of dendrite solidification is proposed. The model predicts the explicit dependency of a dendrite’s rate and tip size on supercooling. The obtained results are devoid of the contradictions of the previous models and show quantitative agreement with the recent experimental data for the SCN dendrite.