Kinetics of the phase separation of a low-viscosity liquid supersaturated with gas at the intermediate and later stages

Abstract

The separation kinetics of a low-viscosity liquid supersaturated with gas is studied. It is shown that the number of bubbles per unit volume at the intermediate stage of the process remains virtually constant, whereas the amount of the gas per unit volume of the solution significantly decreases, almost attaining the equilibrium value. At the later stage, small subcritical bubbles disappear due to gas transfer to large supercritical bubbles; as a result, the number of bubbles in the virtually equilibrium (as to the dissolved gas) liquid decreases. For all the stages, the kinetics of the changes in the bubble distribution function and in the amount of gas per unit volume of the solution is determined.