Stability and Negative Pressure in Bulk and Confined Liquids

Abstract

Negative pressure in liquids – especially in confined systems, like capillaries – often acts as a cohesive force between the solid walls, surrounding the liquid. These forces are responsible for various processes and phenomena, like sap transport in trees or mud stability/mud slides of granular systems (like soil). Due to the metastability of the liquids under negative pressure, different properties (including the limit of stability) cannot be measured directly because the metastable state might equilibrate back to stable ones (liquid + vapour) by cavitation, before the end of the measurement. Therefore it would be crucial to have an equation of state to describe the behavior of liquids (especially for water) in this region. We are going to present some result – comparing experimental data, molecular dynamic simulations and some analytical calculations -, showing which equations could be used in the metastable region and which should be the special pre-cautions taken during their use.KeywordsLiquid WaterMetastable StateStability LimitBulk WaterIsothermal CompressibilityThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.