Cavitation processes in binary systems – the effect of a dissolved gas on the nucleation rate described by the classical nucleation theory

Abstract

Paper presented at the 8th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Mauritius, 11-13 July, 2011.The Classical Nucleation Theory (CNT) is applied to nucleation in cavitation processes in binary mixtures of a liquid component and a dissolved gas component. The multi-component form of the CNT allows to study the influence of the dissolved gas concentration on the resulting nucleation rate. Four binary mixtures are studied, diethylether – nitrogen, propane – carbon dioxide, isobutane – carbon dioxide, and chlorodifluoromethane – carbon dioxide, whose experimental nucleation rates are available in the literature. The nucleation rates and their dependence on concentration of the dissolved gas calculated according to the CNT show good agreement with the experimental data.