Nucleation kinetics of vapor bubbles in a liquid with arbitrary viscosity

TL;DR

This paper extends the vapor bubble nucleation theory to liquids with arbitrary viscosity, providing a comprehensive model that accounts for various kinetic parameters and their effects on nucleation rates, including applications to superfluid helium-4.

Contribution

The authors develop a generalized nucleation rate expression for vapor bubbles in liquids with any viscosity, expanding previous high-viscosity models using Langevin's approach.

Findings

Nucleation rates differ qualitatively and quantitatively between low and high viscosity regimes.

The theory encompasses the (V/ρ,T)- model as a special case for high viscosity.

Application potential to cavitation in superfluid helium-4 is discussed.

Abstract

The theory of vapor bubbles nucleation in single-component liquids developed in [J. Phys. Chem. B 116, 9445 (2012)] for the case of high viscosity (the (V,/rho,T)- theory) is extended to the case of arbitrary viscosity. For this purpose, Langevin's approach in the theory of Brownian motion, or Kramers' model of chemical reactions, is employed. The obtained expression for the bubbles nucleation rate is valid for arbitrary relations between the kinetic parameters controlling the nucleation process: viscosity, inertia of a liquid, the rate of evaporation into a bubble and the rate of heat exchange between the bubble and ambient liquid. So, the presented theory together with the (V,/rho,T)- theory gives a complete description of the vapor-bubbles nucleation kinetics in one-component liquids. Limiting cases with respect to the mentioned parameters are considered, in particular, the low viscosity limit. It is shown that the low- and high-viscosity nucleation rates differ from each other qualitatively and quantitatively. The possibility of application of the theory to cavitation in superfluid helium-4 is discussed.