Cavitation inception triggered by transient ambient pressures in electrolyte solutions

YH Li and MB Li and LW Zhang and BL Wang, PHYSICAL REVIEW FLUIDS, 10, 024202 (2025).

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevFluids.10.024202

Seawater cavitation, an intricate liquid-vapor phase transition caused by overstretching, is influenced by soluble salts such as chloride (Cl-), sodium (Na+), sulfate (SO2- magnesium (Mg2+). However, the super- stability and lifespan elongation of nanobubbles in electrolyte solutions have been extensively reported without considering the nonequilibrium cavitation inception. Cavitation, aroused and further exacerbated by transient pressure fluctuations, leads to hydraulic damage and inaccurate inception predictions. This study therefore performs a nanoscopic investigation on cavitation inception under transient pressure fluctuations in electrolyte solutions via molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. We examine the effects of ionic specificity and concentration on bulk vapor bubble nucleation and nanobubble expansion at the early stage of cavitation. Our findings show that MgSO4 promotes more bulk liquid ruptures to nucleate more bulk vapor cavities than NaCl, facilitating nanobubble growth. Interestingly, surface tension obeys a linear positive correlation against ionic strength irrespective of ionic type, delaying the nanobubble shrinkage in ionic environments. Although NaCl accumulates much at the nanobubble interface, its effect on surface tension increase is less significant than MgSO4 which features a higher polarity.

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