Nucleation of bubbles on a solidification front—experiment and analysis

The heterogeneous nucleation of bubbles on an advancing solidification front during the freezing of water containing a dissolved gas has been experimentally and analytically studied. The formation of bubbles resulting from supersaturation of liquids is commonly encountered in different fields such as heat transfer, manufacturing, and bioscience. In this work, the sizes of nucleating bubbles and the concentration profiles of dissolved oxygen and carbon dioxide gases in the water ahead of the solidification front have been measured. From successful comparisons between the measured and predicted critical radii of nucleating bubbles and distributions of dissolved gas content, the phenomena of heterogeneous nucleation in a binary weak solution during the freezing process are quantitatively confirmed. The results show that an increase in gas content at the solidification front in the liquid decreases the free-energy barrier and critical radii of bubbles that are formed on the solidification front. The sizes of the critical radii decrease and the number of nucleating bubbles increase in the early stage of solidification. As the solidification rates decrease at longer times, the content of the dissolved gas in the liquid on the advancing interface decreases and the critical radii of nucleating bubbles increase.

[1]  S. Lubetkin.  The nucleation and detachment of bubbles , 1989 .

[2]  C. Ho,et al.  An analytical self-consistent determination of a bubble with a deformed cap trapped in solid during solidification , 2002 .

[3]  D. Kenning.  Liquid—vapor phase-change phenomena , 1993 .

[4]  R. Viskanta,et al.  Heat Transfer During Melting and Solidification of Metals , 1988 .

[5]  A. S. Tucker,et al.  Critical state of bubbles in liquid‐gas solutions , 1975 .

[6]  J. Frankel.  Kinetic theory of liquids , 1946 .

[7]  R. Viskanta,et al.  The effect of air bubbles on the diffusion-controlled solidification of water and aqueous solutions of ammonium chloride , 1999 .

[8]  C. Körber,et al.  Investigation of the behavior of dissolved gases during freezing , 1987 .

[9]  Joseph Katz,et al.  Bubble nucleation in liquids , 1975 .

[10]  B. Chalmers,et al.  How Water Freezes , 1959 .

[11]  J. W. Gibbs,et al.  Scientific Papers , 2002, Molecular Imaging and Biology.

[12]  G. Evans,et al.  The cycle of bubble production from a gas cavity in a supersaturated solution , 1999 .

[13]  D. R. Pedersen,et al.  Selective Freezing of a Dilute Salt Solution on a Cold Ice Surface , 1984 .

[14]  W. Tiller,et al.  The redistribution of solute atoms during the solidification of metals , 1953 .

[15]  R. Viskanta,et al.  Gas segregation during solidification processes , 1997 .

[16]  J. Christian,et al.  The theory of transformations in metals and alloys , 2003 .

[17]  R. Viskanta,et al.  A differential model for salt-stratified, double-diffusive systems heated from below , 1985 .

[18]  A. Carte,et al.  Air Bubbles in Ice , 1961 .

[19]  V. Dhir.  BOILING HEAT TRANSFER , 1998 .

[20]  T. Battle.  Mathematical modelling of solute segregation in solidifying materials , 1992 .

[21]  K. A. Tagavi,et al.  VOID FORMATION IN UNIDIRECTIONAL SOLIDIFICATION , 1990 .

[22]  W. Wilcox,et al.  Gas bubble nucleation during crystallization , 1973 .

[23]  J. Anderson,et al.  Nucleation and growth of thin films , 1978 .

[24]  Howard Reiss,et al.  The Kinetics of Phase Transitions in Binary Systems , 1950 .

[25]  S. Patankar.  Numerical Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow , 2018, Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering.

[26]  J. Beech,et al.  The development of blowholes in the ice/water/carbon dioxide system , 1975 .

[27]  W. Wilcox,et al.  The interaction of bubbles with solidification interfaces , 1977 .

[28]  L. Landau,et al.  statistical-physics-part-1 , 1958 .

[29]  P. M. Wilt,et al.  Nucleation rates and bubble stability in water-carbon dioxide solutions , 1986 .

[30]  Kevin P. Galvin,et al.  Bubble nucleation from gas cavities — a review , 1999 .

[31]  PengSheng Wei,et al.  Shape of a pore trapped in solid during solidification , 2000 .

[32]  K. A. Jackson,et al.  Transparent compounds that freeze like metals , 1965 .

[33]  K. Nishioka.  Thermodynamic formula for evaluating the reversible work to form a critical nucleus and influence of critical nucleus size upon interfacial tension , 1992 .

[34]  B. Han,et al.  Effect of welding variables and solidification substructure on weld metal porosity , 1994 .

[35]  J. Hallett,et al.  Nucleation and Growth of Bubbles at an Ice–Water Interface , 1974 .

[36]  John Aurie Dean,et al.  Lange's Handbook of Chemistry , 1978 .

[37]  F. C. Hooper,et al.  On the Thermodynamics of Nucleation in Weak Gas-Liquid Solutions , 1970 .