Bubble Growth Period Research Articles

Bubble-driven heater dynamics in saturated pool boiling

Exploring energy within boiling system is becoming an effective way to enhance heat transfer nowadays. Novel bubble-driven heater has great potential to achieve it. However, heater dynamics in this technique are crucial but unclear in previous studies. Here, boiling on a movable suspended heater with the same density of liquid was simulated to investigate heater dynamics and corresponding mechanisms in detail. Smaller departure diameter and higher frequency were found on movable heater. Periodical up-down motion was observed and the upward movement only occurred at high heat fluxes. Up-down motion contributed to small dry spot diameter and rapid cold liquid supply. The mechanism of different motion over entire bubble cycle was investigated for the first time. Heater moved downwards due to evaporation momentum force (Fe) and add mass force (Fa) during the initial bubble growth stage with expanding triple line, moved upwards due to surface tension force (Fs) during bubble growth period with nearly constant triple line, and it moved downwards again due to Fa when bubble departed. Fa and Fe which impeded bubble departure before were found benefit departure by induced movable heater. Heater manipulation mechanism was found and our study would benefit the design of smart and automatic heater.

A visualization study of a confined vapor chamber with conical microstructure applied in data centres

Abstract With the development of the informatization technology, the scale of the data centre is expanding rapidly. The energy consumptions of the electronic equipment in the data centre are rising regularly, which lead to the thermal management becoming an argent issue to be settled. To realize the sustainable development of green data centre, the passive two-phase vapor chamber (VC) has turned into the focus of electronic cooling research. Constructing nucleation induced structures on the evaporation surface is an effective method to improve the performance of the vapor chamber. To address the problem of achieving enhanced boiling, a novel conical microstructure was designed in the vapor chamber with 50 mm height. The conical structure of 1 mm axial height was fabricated on the evaporation surface by computer numerical control (CNC) machining technology. A visualization experimental system was developed to investigate the effect of the conical microstructure on the two-phase behaviours, and the boiling heat transfer characteristics under different heating conditions (Q in = 35 W, 50 W, 65 W) in a confined vapor chamber. The high-speed camera was used to capture the bubble behaviours. Experimental results found that compared with the smooth surface, the integration of the conical structure increasing the number of bubble nucleation sites and the bubble departure frequency. The bubble growth period at stable heating stage is 162 ms shorter than initial heating stage on the evaporation surface with conical structure. The thermal resistance (R vc) of vapor chamber with conical structure is improved by 5.85% compared to the smooth one at Q in = 65 W, which indicate that the conical microstructure can enhance the boiling heat transfer performance. This study aims to provide a reference for the design of thermal management system for green data centre.

Microfluidic controllable production and morphology-independent phase-change heat transfer of boehmite nanofluids

Enhanced boiling heat transfer through nanofluids represents a significant approach to improving the cooling performance of electronic devices. However, the preparation of nanofluids poses challenges regarding production efficiency, morphology control, and structural stability. In addition, the underlying mechanism of flow boiling heat transfer enhancement of nanofluids, particularly changes in vapor behavior, remains a limited understanding. This study presents a facile and straightforward microfluidic strategy for the controllable synthesis of nanofluids toward efficient heat transfer enhancement. The microfluidic flow synthesis approach effectively enhances mixing efficiency at various flow rates, enabling continuous and high-throughput synthesis of boehmite nanofluids with different morphologies. The synthesized nanofluids exhibit long-term stability (>50 days) at room temperature. Both rod- and sphere-shaped nanofluids under equivalent concentrations can significantly improve critical heat flux (CHF) and maximum heat transfer coefficient (HTC) across various operating parameters, but with similar enhancement characteristics. Analysis of the period of bubble growth and burst, bubble size distributions, number of bubbles, and vapor phase fractions reveals that rod- and sphere-shaped nanofluids could shorten the period, enhance surface wetting, increase nucleation sites, and reduce bubble size efficiently and similarly. Furthermore, the effect of the concentration of nanofluid on phase-change heat transfer performance is systematically explored. 0.01 wt% nanofluid behaves the most remarkable enhancement, CHF and maximum HTC are improved by 24 % and 14.4 %, respectively. These findings not only shed new light on the controllable synthesis of functional nanomaterials but also provide important guidelines for the rational design of nanofluids for efficient two-phase cooling of electronic devices.

Micro/nanostructuring of metal additively manufactured aluminum alloy for enhanced pool boiling of dielectric fluids

Surface micro/nanotextures have the potential to increase bubble nucleation and promote capillary liquid wicking to enhance pool boiling heat transfer significantly. Despite past studies implementing surface micro/nanofabrication strategies to enhance boiling, the role of structure length scale and morphology on boiling heat transfer coefficient (h) and critical heat flux (CHF) of low-surface-tension dielectric fluids remains unclear. In this study, we systematically tune the surface microstructures on additively and conventionally manufactured aluminum alloys (AM AlSi10Mg and Al6061) from 1 µm to 5 µm to study the influence of microstructure length scale on boiling performance. In addition, to further understand the effect of submicron structures on boiling, nanostructures of 300 nm length were generated on a plain AM surface and hierarchically incorporated atop the microstructures. Dielectric fluid, HFE-7100, was used to investigate the effects of surface morphology on pool boiling heat transfer coefficient (h) and critical heat flux (CHF). Our results show that the 5 µm microstructured AM surface, AM-H(400)E(5), attained a CHF of 19.44 W/cm2 and a maximum heat transfer coefficient (hmax) of 2.89 W/cm2·K, which represents a reduction in CHF of 28.5 % and an enhancement in hmax of 103.8 %, as compared to the plain Al6061 surface. In addition, AM-H(400)E(5) achieved a large enhancement ratio of 2.2 as compared to the plain Al6061 at a heat flux of 20 W/cm2, and the highest h value amongst all structured surfaces, indicating its cavity size is optimal for bubble nucleation. Through the systematic tuning of micro/nanostructures length scale and morphology, this study found that the micro/nanostructures of 1 µm size and below are too small to serve as bubble nucleation sites. Additionally, micro/nanostructure wickability plays a negligible role in affecting pool boiling performances of highly wetting dielectric fluids, while surface morphology plays a dominant role in bubble nucleation to enhance boiling. Lastly, high-speed immersion microscopy was performed to understand the effects of micro/nanostructures on bubble characteristics such as bubble departure diameter and growth period. In summary, this work not only reports the first micro/nanostructured AM surfaces utilizing scalable fabrication techniques for enhanced boiling, but it also demonstrates the potential of tunning the micro/nanostructure length scale to optimize the bubble nucleation site density, resulting in significantly improved pool boiling performances.

Effect of compact thermosyphon height on boiling curve and thermal performance: A visualization analysis

The thermal management requirement of the servers for data centers has become an urgent issue to be addressed. The two-phase compact thermosyphon has been one of the highly-efficient passive cooling devices to solve heat dissipation problems. In this study, compact thermosyphons with different heights (20 mm, 25 mm, and 50 mm) and filling ratios (25 % − 75 %) were investigated. The corresponding boiling curves and thermal performance were analyzed. Thermal resistance was defined to evaluate the thermal performance in the thermosyphon system. The experimental results illustrate that the reduction in height significantly influences the thermal behaviors of the compact thermosyphon. For the 20 mm height case, the bubble adheres to the condensation surface for a longer time compared with the other cases, which increases the entire bubble growth period. Boiling curves of compact thermosyphons with different heights and filling ratios exhibit distinct characteristics. The heat flux on the boiling surface (qb) with 20 mm height at the low filling ratio (FR = 25 %) is 68.2 % of that with the 50 mm height, indicating the reduced boiling intensity. Both the delayed onset of boiling (ONB) and bubble films of large areas on the condensation surface are generated at FR = 75 % case with 20 mm height, which weakens the phase change heat transfer. For the 50 mm height case, a medium filling ratio and lower input heat flux provide the optimized performance (0.36 K·W−1 of the thermal resistance). For the compact thermosyphon with lower height, low and medium filling ratios are preferred to minimize the deterioration of thermal performance. The outcomes are hoped to provide references for the optimal design and operation of the compact thermosyphon applied in the areas of thermal management and energy conservation.

A Review of Pool-Boiling Processes Based on Bubble-Dynamics Parameters

Immersion cooling is widely used for thermal management of servers. The two-phase immersion cooling, which transfers heat by boiling, possesses efficient temperature control ability under intensive heat generation. In the process of temperature control through boiling, the generation and transportation of bubbles play a crucial role in calculating the heat-transfer capacity. Therefore, it holds immense significance to obtain a profound understanding of the mechanisms underlying bubble formation and detachment. Currently, numerous mechanistic explanations and empirical correlations have been proposed to elucidate the various parameters of bubbles during the boiling process. These findings were considered to be valuable references when selecting appropriate boiling media and designing efficient heating surfaces. To comprehensively present the progress of bubble formation and heat transfer in the boiling system, the forces exerted on the bubbles are highlighted in this article. A meticulous review of bubble-force analysis and correlation formulae pertaining to various relevant parameters (e.g., nucleation sites density, bubble growth rate, bubble growth period, and detachment frequency) was conducted. This review article was also expected to provide a novel foundation for further exploration of enhanced boiling heat transfer.

Pool-boiling enhancement on periodic micro/nano ripple-structured surfaces fabricated by femtosecond laser

A study was conducted on whether periodic micro/nano ripple structures generated on metal surfaces using femtosecond laser processing could improve pool boiling heat transfer. Depending on the laser irradiation conditions on the metal surface, a surface structure with different geometrical characteristics is created. Changes in sample surface morphology caused by the laser irradiation intensity are examined using scanning electron microscopy and confocal laser microscopy. Pool boiling tests are conducted to compare three laser irradiation conditions fabricated samples and the bare copper surface. The working fluid is deionized water. The pool boiling curves of each sample surface were compared with each other. Visualization of bubble nucleation is performed using a high-speed camera. The superheat, bubble departure diameter, and bubble growth period of each sample are measured and compared at the onset of nucleate boiling (ONB). The most efficient periodic micro/nano ripple-structured surface reduces the superheat at the ONB by 6.13 °C in comparison with that at the bare Cu surface. The enhanced surface structure reduced the bubble departure diameter and renewal period by 60.5% and 55.6% in comparison with that of the smooth surface. Further, the structured surface showed 178.5% enhancement in heat transfer coefficient and 39.1% in critical heat flux, respectively. Thus, the combination of increased nucleate site density, high nucleation site activation, and a wicking effect in the periodic micro/nano ripple structure significantly improves the pool boiling heat transfer.

Computational modelling and investigation of nucleate boiling with periodic exponential heat flux-based power-transients

The present work proposes a numerical methodology to perform single bubble nucleate boiling simulation subjected to power transients with exponential heating. Cyclic variation in transient heat flux is utilized which enables—proper characterization of the power transient parameters, parametric investigation of power transients on single bubble dynamics, and comparison between steady and transient heating condition. For constant time averaged heat flux in power cycle, it was observed that heating parameters are not having any influence on bubble departure diameter and bubble growth period whereas the bubble departure frequency is enhanced until vertical coalescence is observed. Parametric investigations based on time period of periodic heat flux and time averaged heat flux reveal the existence of a range in excursion time period which cause increase in bubble departure frequency, with applicability for controlling bubble dynamics with power transients and improving efficiency of thermal management devices using nucleate boiling.

Bubble growth on a smooth metallic surface at atmospheric and sub-atmospheric pressure

Bubble growth rate is one of the most important parameters required for the development of accurate mechanistic nucleate boiling heat transfer models. It is also very important for understanding the hydrodynamic forces and the mechanism of bubble departure. This paper presents an experimental study on bubble growth measurements in saturated pool boiling of deionized water on a plain copper surface at atmospheric and sub-atmospheric pressure. The measurements were conducted using a high-speed, high-resolution camera with a microscopic lens. The mechanisms of bubble growth are discussed, while the microlayer evaporation mechanism has been evaluated and discussed using the measured bubble growth curve. The estimated contribution of microlayer evaporation to a single bubble growth is about 70 %, while the contribution of latent heat transfer (evaporation) to the total heat transfer rate from the surface is about 30 %. The remaining 70 % is due to other mechanisms, i.e. conduction and convection. These values were obtained based on the analysis of the bubble growth curve only and agreed with some researchers who conducted local heat transfer measurements using integrated sensors or infrared thermography. These detailed measurement techniques cannot be used with the thick copper block tested in the current study, which was also tested by many researchers in literature and is representative of industrially used surfaces. It was also found that the bubble departure mechanism at atmospheric pressure is due to a static balance between surface tension and buoyancy forces while at sub-atmospheric pressure, it was between buoyancy and liquid inertia forces. The pressure did not have a significant effect on the characteristics of the dynamic contact angle, which was also measured from the instantaneous images of the bubble. It was concluded also that the force balance required for the accurate prediction of departure diameter should be conducted when the two forces are equal, which occurred at time less than the departure time and dynamic contact angle of about 45. In most bubble departure models, researchers recommended the balance to be conducted at the moment of departure when the bubble forms a neck with contact angle of 900 (underestimation to the surface tension force). The analysis of one of the commonly used homogeneous growth models indicated that for homogeneous bubble growth models to be applicable in nucleate boiling, an allowance must be made for the fact that the degree of superheat varies with time during a bubble growth period.

Experimental investigation on microlayer behavior and bubble growth based on laser interferometric method

High-speed laser interferometry is synchronized with a high-speed camera to visualize the dynamic microlayer behavior during bubble growth in a pool boiling under pressures from 0.1 to 0.3 MPa. An Indium–Tin-Oxide (ITO) film coated on sapphire is employed as the heating unit to provide the nominal surface heat fluxes in the range from 90 to 150 kW/m2. Based on the instantaneous microlayer thickness and photographed bubble images, microlayer formation and depletion and their relationship with bubble growth are analyzed. Appreciable effects of pressure on microlayer dynamics and bubble growth have been observed. At higher pressure, the microlayer existence time decreases and consequently, the contribution of the microlayer evaporation becomes less important. At elevated pressure, the effects of liquid subcooling and surface heat flux on bubble growth become more pronounced. The dimensionless instantaneous maximum microlayer thickness, δmax/√vt, shows exponential dependence on the ratio rd/rb,1 which increases linearly with time before the microlayer depletion. A correlation is proposed to predict the instantaneous maximum microlayer thickness synthesizing the two relations. The local heat flux will be overestimated and the wall temperature profile is contrary to the experimental observation when the flow inside the microlayer is negligible. During the bubble growth period, only part of the microlayer is evaporated and the internal flow inside cannot be neglected.

Effect of laser spot diameter on oxygen bubble behavior in photoelectrochemical water splitting

The detrimental effect caused by the long-term adhesion of bubbles on the gas production efficiency has been the main bottleneck limiting the efficiency improvement of photoelectrochemical water splitting. The evolution of oxygen bubbles on the fixed photoelectrode surface of TiO2 films was observed in-situ using a combination of a synchronized high-speed microscopic camera and an electrochemical workstation. The effect of oxygen bubble evolution on the current during the photoelectrochemical reaction was investigated under different laser spot diameters. When the spot diameter increased 1.68 times from 700 μm to 1176 μm with a laser power of 5 mW, the bubble detachment diameter and growth period increased 2.7 times and 20.2 times, respectively, yet the gas production efficiency decreased by 34.7%. Meanwhile, the peak current caused by the bubble detachment gradually increased. However, the valley current at the nucleation waiting stage of the bubble did not have obvious changes. The model for the gas evolving based on supersaturation was adopted. It illustrated that the concentration gradient of dissolved gas perpendicular to the photoelectrode surface increased with the increase of spot diameter, leading to an increase in the bubble surface tension gradient, and causing the Marangoni force to inhibit the detachment of bubbles. A force balance model was developed to evaluate the Marangoni forces and the buoyancy forces. The growth rate of the Marangoni force was found to be proportional to the spot diameter. Therefore, reducing the laser spot diameter is a means to effectively remove the bubbles from the photoelectrode surface.

Surface blistering and void swelling of α-Al2O3 irradiated with H2+ ions followed by 1000, 1200 °C annealing

Surface morphology and defect structures in α-Αl2O3 irradiated with 106 keV H2+ and post-irradiation-annealed at 1000, 1200 °C were investigated. The ion irradiations and annealing cause modifications to the Raman scattering peaks such as the peak disappearance and peak shifts. Surface blisters with several micrometers in diameter are visible. The mean blister sizes increase with increasing annealing temperatures and decrease with increasing irradiation fluences. Transmission electron microscopy characterizations reveal large numbers of spherical or oval shaped voids around the peak-damage zone. Faceted voids are also observed. The irradiation-induced dislocation loops are mostly annealed out with only some dislocation lines left inside. Nevertheless, small dislocation loops with sizes of ∼20–30 nm are characterized under different diffraction conditions, which are found to be associated with the void structures in the 1.5 × 1017 H2+/cm2 irradiated and annealed sample. These loop structures are considered to be induced through the ‘loop punching’ mechanism due to a high gas pressure inside during the bubble growth period.

Experimental and Numerical Analysis of the Influence of Microchannel Size and Structure on Boiling Heat Transfer

Computational fluid dynamics was used and a numerical simulation analysis of boiling heat transfer in microchannels with three depths and three cross-sectional profiles was conducted. The heat transfer coefficient and bubble generation process of three microchannel structures with a width of 80 μm and a depth of 40, 60, and 80 μm were compared during the boiling process, and the factors influencing bubble generation were studied. A visual test bench was built, and test substrates of different sizes were prepared using a micro-nano laser. During the test, the behavior characteristics of the bubbles on the boiling surface and the temperature change of the heated wall were collected with a high-speed camera and a temperature sensor. It was found that the microchannel with a depth of 80 μm had the largest heat transfer coefficient and shortest bubble growth period, the rectangular channel had a larger peak heat transfer coefficient and a lower frequency of bubble occurrence, while the V-shaped channel had the shortest growth period, i.e., the highest frequency of bubble occurrence, but its heat transfer coefficient was smaller than that of the rectangular channel.

Polarization motion of bubbles in a non-uniform electric field

In this study, the polarization motion of bubbles in a determined dielectric liquid medium (n-heptane) under a direct current (DC) non-uniform electric field were experimentally studied, using high-speed photography and with a focus on the effect of applied voltage and gas flow rate on bubble dispersion characteristics. The results show that increasing the electric field strength leads to a shortening of the bubble growth period, a significant reduction in bubble size and a rapid generation frequency. At low electric field strength, the bubble motion mainly exhibits hydrodynamic characteristics, and the height of the bubble chain shortens with the increase of BoE as a result of wake effect. In contrast, at high electric field strength, the bubble motion is first governed by polarization force and manifests electrohydrodynamic (EHD) characteristics, and the height of the bubble chain extends upward with increasing electrical Bond number (BoE). Nevertheless, once the bubbles leave the region dominated by the polarization force, their motion again displays hydrodynamic characteristics, and then the bubbles spread out the liquid phase, subject to bubble wakes and bubble-to-bubble interaction behaviors. In addition, two typical regimes of bubble coalescence are divided depending on the coalescence positions, including the coalescence near the tube orifice and the coalescence at the end of the bubble chain. The bubble size distribution at different heights corresponds to the bubble coalescence regimes.

Single bubble dynamics on a TiO2 photoelectrode surface during photoelectrochemical water splitting

The bubble evolution on the photoelectrode surface in photoelectrochemical water splitting can change the mass transfer of gaseous products and induce additional resistance. In this paper, the growth and nucleation of a single oxygen bubble over a titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanorod-array electrode was investigated. The results indicate that the resistance decreases significantly due to the decrease of dissolved gas concentration at the beginning of bubble growth period. Because the effect of electrolyte constriction offsets the concentration-lowering effect, the resistance is almost constant in the later stage of bubble growth. The increase of light intensity leads to longer bubble waiting time and growth time, larger bubble diameter and smaller contact angle. Moreover, the bubble nucleation frequency increases due to the improved reaction rates at higher potential. A force balance model is constructed to predict the bubble departure diameter. It is found that the forces preventing the bubble departure from the photoelectrode surface are mainly surface tension and Marangoni force, which account for 82% and 18%, respectively.

Experimental and theoretical investigation of bubble dynamics on vertical surfaces with different wettability for pool boiling

Surface wettability is generally employed to manipulate the bubble dynamics to enhance the performance of boiling heat transfer. This work conducted an experimental and theoretical investigation of bubble dynamics on vertical surfaces with different wettability for pool boiling. The side-by-side comparison for bubble growth, bubble detachment diameter and frequency on superhydrophilic, superhydrophobic, and neutral surfaces were visualized, the bubbles detachment diameter and growth time in a negative exponential dependence with the subcooling degree, even a tiny difference in subcooling, such as 1–2K, contributes significantly to the shrinking of bubble volume. When the fluid was in a saturated state or the subcooling of the fluid can be neglected, the bubble was tightly adhered to the wall and cannot detach from the superhydrophobic surface, the bubbles would gather to a certain volume and then slide upward, and the first time of bubble detachment was observed when the coolant subcooling reached 2K. An energy balance model was developed to evaluate the bubble diameter in the bubble growth period, with 94% reproduction of the consolidated database within the error band of ± 40%. In addition, a new correlation is proposed for bubble detachment diameter, the new correlation performed significantly better in a broad range of contact angle, with 82% confidence interval of the consolidated datasets was ± 30%.

Experimental study of the growth period of wall-attached bubbles

Abstract Due to dam discharge, waterfalls, sudden increases in water temperature and oxygen production by photosynthesis, the total dissolved gas (TDG) in water is often supersaturated, which may have serious effects on aquatic ecology. Wall-attached bubbles formed during the TDG release process and the generation and departure of wall-attached bubbles influenced the release of TDG from water. Therefore, an experiment was performed to simulate the growth of wall-attached bubbles at various water flow velocities, a quantitative relationship between the wall-attached bubble growth period and flow velocity was obtained. Another quantitative relationship, between the wall-attached bubble departure diameter and turbulent kinetic energy of flowing water, was also determined. The analysis results of the TDG release rate proved that the adsorption of TDG on solid walls was considerably affected by flow velocity. The analysis models the TDG release mechanism through complex experiments and provides a method to better identify sites for supersaturated TDG adsorption. This study serves as an important theoretical basis for revealing the mechanism by which solid surfaces promote the release process of supersaturated TDG in natural water.

Numerical Study on Pool Film Boiling of Liquid Hydrogen over Horizontal Cylinders

Due to the low boiling point of hydrogen, the boiling phenomenon is usually encountered in the applications of liquid hydrogen. The underlying mechanism as well as the physical performance of film boiling over horizontal cylinders are not yet fully understood, especially for the various diameters. In this paper, pool film boiling of hydrogen over horizontal cylinders with diameters ranging from 0.2 to 30 mm is investigated based on the volume-of-fluid method. By the analysis of the gas–liquid interface evolution and the heat transfer mechanism, the cylinders are divided into wire heaters, transition heaters, and tube heaters. The results show that the heat transfer of the wire is affected by the evolution of a single bubble, while the heat transfer of the tube is mainly affected by the movement of multiple crescent-shaped gas structures along the surface. Besides, with the increase in cylinder diameter, the bubble detachment diameter increases, the heat flux decreases correspondingly, and the bubble growth period experiences a complicated principle.

Conjugate heat transfer analysis of bubble growth during flow boiling in a rectangular microchannel

The conjugate heat transfer of bubble growth during flow boiling in microchannel has a significant effect on the flow field and heat transfer performance but few studies analyzed it before. In this study, the volume of fluid (VOF) method, Hardt's phase-change model, conjugate heat transfer between solid and fluid domains are adopted within an OpenFOAM solver to investigate the bubble growth and heat transfer performance in a microchannel with changed wall thickness from 5 μm to 160 μm and materials including silicon, aluminum, and copper. The results reveal that even if uniform heat flux is applied to the bottom wall, heat flux is not uniform at the solid-fluid interface due to the phase-change process in the channel. Conjugate heat transfer between the fluid and solid domain plays an important role in transferring the uniform heat flux from the bottom wall to the solid-fluid interface and homogenizing the solid-region temperature distribution, which cannot be ignored in the simulation of the phase-change phenomenon. When using different wall thicknesses, the bubble growth period differs by over two times. An optimum thickness exists for each material because the increasing wall thickness leads to a faster bubble growth rate but higher thermal resistance. With the same bottom wall thickness, the solid material with higher thermal diffusivity owns a faster bubble growth rate, thus a higher heat transfer coefficient. The optimum thickness decreases with increasing thermal diffusivity of the solid-domain material.

Numerical Frameworks for Laser-Induced Cavitation: Is Interface Supersaturation a Plausible Primary Nucleation Mechanism?

Crystallization has been observed in laser-induced cavities in saturated solutions, but the mechanisms behind nucleation of crystals are not entirely clear. A hypothesis is that high solution supersaturation during the bubble growth period triggers the nucleation. Because of small spatiotemporal scales of the cavitation event, the supersaturation is very difficult to measure experimentally. To test the nucleation hypothesis, we perform a two-dimensional axisymmetric direct numerical simulation of an experimentally observed laser-induced cavitation event with crystallization. We demonstrate a significant degree of supersaturation and argue that the nucleation hypothesis is indeed plausible. To analyze factors that lead to a high supersaturation, we develop a comprehensive one-dimensional model for spherical laser-induced cavities. We conduct an extensive investigation on how the solute solubility, solute diffusivity, laser pulse energy, and superheated liquid volume affect the supersaturation. We show that high supersaturation is possible under a range of relevant conditions but not readily obtained for all solutions and laser setups. Guidelines are provided to identify if a specific solution or laser setup may attain high supersaturation. The insights obtained and the numerical methods formulated in this work can be applied to assess and design new laser-induced cavitation setups that allow for precise control of the duration and degree of the supersaturation