Dendritic Growth

Generative Animations

A 2D and 3D simulation of dendritic growth of ice in supercooled water. Supercooled water can only freeze around already frozen/solid areas. Because the transition to ice releases energy, nearby water is warmed up, which delays freezing until energy diffusion occurs. This interaction creates distinct dendritic growth patterns which can be controlled by changing the temparature distribution and the initial conditions. This project is made in Unity with compute shaders and runs interactively.

freeze_3d_1.00_00_09_05.Still002.small
freeze_all.00_00_02_24.Still001.small.last

Created in collaboration with my brother Jan von Rickenbach.