Enhanced Classical Nucleation Theory for Cavitation Inception in the Presence of Gaseous Nuclei

Abstract

This paper introduces an enhanced Classical Nucleation Theory model to predict the cavitation inception pressure and to describe the behavior of nanoscale gaseous nuclei during cavitation. Validation is achieved through molecular dynamics simulations. The findings highlight the significant role of nanoscale gaseous nuclei in lowering the tensile strength required for cavitation initiation. The results show that our enhanced CNT model predicts lower cavitation pressures than the Blake threshold, closely matching molecular dynamics simulations. Finally, our results illustrate that differences between cavitation pressures using the Van der Waals and ideal gas models are greatest for smaller nuclei and lower temperatures.