Features of heat/mass transfer and explosive water boiling at the laser fiber tip

Abstract

Experimentally, as well as using numerical simulation methods, the features of the processes of heat and mass transfer and explosive boiling of water, initiated by continuous laser radiation with λ = 1.94 μm, emerging from the tip of the laser fiber, are studied. The trajectories of the microvolume with the maximum temperature of the superheated liquid under laser heating, in which the probability of explosive boiling up is maximum, are determined. The calculations took into account changes in the density of superheated water and the dependence of the absorption coefficient of laser radiation on temperature. Using acoustic methods and high-speed video recording, it is shown that during explosive boiling up, the duration of the leading front of the acoustic signal is ∼300 ns. Such a long duration of pressure rise at the receiving point is explained by the fact that explosive boiling occurs in a wide area of superheated liquid near fiber tip, when the nuclei located in it are stimulated by an initially arising pressure pulse.