Limiting stretchings of liquid oxygen: Experiment and classical nucleation theory

Abstract Spontaneous cavitation in liquid oxygen has been investigated in the shock phase-transition regime. Tensile stresses were created in a liquid when a compression pulse was reflected from the liquid–vapor interface. Cavitation was localized close to a platinum heater, which simultaneously served as a sensor of the number of forming bubbles. Investigations were conducted in regimes of liquid pulsed superheating in a tension wave and a rapid pressure decrease in a preliminarily locally heated liquid. In experiment, measurements were made of limiting superheatings (stretchings) and the signal of thermal perturbation of the sensor-heater used to determine from the solution of the thermal problem the nucleation rate and its temperature and baric dependences. The cavitation process has been investigated in the temperature range from 112 to 142 K at nucleation rates J  = 10 20 –10 22  s −1  m −3 . The results of experiments have been compared with classical nucleation theory (CNT). It is shown that a good agreement between experimental data and CNT is observed if the latter takes into account the size dependence of the surface tension of critical bubbles.