Kinetic equations describing formation of nuclei of a new phase on active centers from supercooled melt taking into account exhaustion of active centers are solved numerically. Basic characteristics of nucleation process (total number of nuclei and nucleation rate) of folded chain crystals of polyethylene at low supercooling are determined and compared with measured data. Our model gives good coincidence with experimental measurements of the total number density of nuclei. Nucleation rate reaches some quasistationary limit at sufficiently long time, which is approximately 20% of the stationary nucleation rate determined by the standard way.
(c) 2004 American Institute of Physics