A review of meta-stable aspects on a subcooled critical flow in nozzles and orifices

Abstract A meta-stable effect on a subcooled critical flow in a nozzle and an orifice was investigated. For an investigation of the meta-stable effect, two homogeneous nucleation models, e.g., the Alamgir and Lienhard’s model and the Elias and Chambre’s model, and one conventional isentropic model, e.g., the Henry and Fauske’s model, were compared with respect to a previous test data performed by Sozzi and Sutherland. From comparisons of throttle pressures among the nucleation models and the isentropic model, the test data and the Henry and Fauske’s model were lying between the two homogeneous nucleation models. Throttle pressures predicted by the Alamgir and Leinhard’s model provided a lower bound and an upper bound done by the Elias and Chambre’s. A further discussion for a meta-stable effect on critical flow in orifices using the author’s previous data was also presented.