skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Homogeneous nucleation in liquid nitrogen at negative pressures

Journal Article · · Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics
;  [1]
  1. Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Thermal Physics, Ural Branch (Russian Federation)

The kinetics of spontaneous cavitation in liquid nitrogen at positive and negative pressures has been studied in a tension wave formed by a compression pulse reflected from the liquid–vapor interface on a thin platinum wire heated by a current pulse. The limiting tensile stresses (Δp = p{sub s}–p, where p{sub s} is the saturation pressure), the corresponding bubble nucleation frequencies J (10{sup 20}–10{sup 22} s{sup –1} m{sup –3}), and temperature induced nucleation frequency growth rate G{sub T} = dlnJ/dT have been experimentally determined. At T = 90 K, the limiting tensile stress was Δp = 8.3 MPa, which was 4.9 MPa lower than the value corresponding to the boundary of thermodynamic stability of the liquid phase (spinodal). The measurement results were compared to classical (homogeneous) nucleation theory (CNT) with and without neglect of the dependence of the surface tension of critical bubbles on their dimensions. In the latter case, the properties of new phase nuclei were described in terms of the Van der Waals theory of capillarity. The experimental data agree well with the CNT theory when it takes into account the “size effect.”.

OSTI ID:
22617165
Journal Information:
Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics, Vol. 123, Issue 4; Other Information: Copyright (c) 2016 Pleiades Publishing, Inc.; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1063-7761
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English