Vapor bubble nucleation in flowing liquids

Abstract

In this work, a stochastic diffuse interface model coupled with the Navier–Stokes equations has been exploited to numerically investigate vapor nucleation in a non-equilibrium system (a flowing liquid). Both homogeneous and heterogeneous nucleation is addressed and the influence of macroscopic flows on nucleation observables is discussed. The extended mesoscale simulations allow us to infer the spatial distributions of the nucleated bubbles via Voronoi tessellation analysis and to represent the nucleation phenomenon as a stochastic Random Poisson Point process. The findings open the way to design multiscale fluid simulations experiencing phase change.