Explosive Boiling of Superheated Cryogenic Liquids

Vladimir G. Baidakov studied physics and completed his PhD-thesis at the Ural Institute of Technology in Ekaterinburg, Russia. Since 1973, he is working at the Institute of Thermal Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences also in Ekaterinburg, in recent years as a Vice-Director for Research and presently as the Director of this institute and the Head of the Laboratory of Cryogenics and Energetics. Prof. Baidakov's work focuses on experimental and theoretical investigations of the kinetics of first-order phase transitions, in particular, on the investigation of the kinetics of boiling, the analysis of bulk and surface properties of fluids in thermodynamically stable and metastable states, the investigation of the properties of bubbles of critical sizes determining the rate of bubble formation. The results of the work of V.G. Baidakov and his coworkers are outlined in 6 monographs and 125 journal publications. In acknowledgment of his results, in 1999 he was awarded with the Russian State Prize in Science and Technology.

Foreword.Preface.1 Introduction.2 Equilibrium, Stability, and Metastability.2.1 Types of Equilibria: Stability Criteria.2.2 Boundary of Essential Instability.2.3 Elements of Statistical Theory.2.4 Phase Stability Against Finite Perturbations.2.5 Critical Heterophase Fluctuations.2.6 Relaxation Processes in Metastable Phases.2.7 Dynamics of Heterophase Fluctuations.2.8 Kinetic Nucleation Theory (Multiparameter Version).2.9 Approximations and Limitations of Classical Nucleation Theory.2.10 Nucleation at a High Degree of Metastability.2.11 Nucleation Bypassing the Saddle Point.2.12 Some Comments on Nucleation Theory.3 Attainable Superheating of One-Component Liquids.3.1 Two Approaches to the Determination of theWork of Formation of a Critical Bubble.3.2 Boiling-Up Kinetics of Superheated Liquids.3.3 Elements of the Stochastic Theory of Nucleation.3.4 Experimental Procedures in the Analysis of Boiling in Superheated Liquids.3.5 Quasistatic Methods of Investigating Limiting Superheatings of Liquids.3.6 Dynamic Methods of Investigating Explosive Boiling-Up of Liquids.3.7 Results of Experiments on Classical Liquids.3.8 Superheating of Quantum Liquids.3.9 Surface Tension of Vapor Nuclei.3.10 Cavitation Strength of Cryogenic Liquids.3.11 Attainable Superheating of Liquid Argon at Negative Pressures.3.12 Initiated Nucleation.3.13 Heterogeneous Nucleation.4 Nucleation in Solutions of Liquefied Gases.4.1 Critical Nucleus and the Work of its Formation.4.2 Theory of Nucleation in Binary Solutions.4.3 Attainable Superheating of Solutions of Hydrocarbons.4.4 Methods of Experimentation on Solutions of Cryogenic Liquids.4.5 Solutions with Complete Solubility of the Components.4.6 Solutions with Partial Solubility of the Components.4.7 Equation of State and Boundaries of Thermodynamic Stability of Solutions.4.8 Properties of Critical Bubbles in Binary Solutions.4.9 Comparison of Theory and Experiment for Binary Solutions.4.10 Kinetics and Thermodynamics of Nucleation in Three-Component Solutions.4.11 Attainable Superheatings of Ternary Solutions of Cryogenic Liquids.5 Nucleation in Highly Correlated Systems.5.1 Introduction.5.2 Critical Configuration and its Stability.5.3 Steady-State Nucleation.5.4 Peculiarities of New Phase Formation in the Critical Region.5.5 Experimental Investigations of Nucleation in the Vicinity of Critical and Tricritical Points.5.6 Comparison of Theory and Experiment.5.7 Nucleation in the Vicinity of a Spinodal Curve.5.8 Theory of Spinodal Decomposition.5.9 Experimental Studies of Spinodal Decomposition.6 Nucleation Kinetics Near the Absolute Zero of Temperature.6.1 Quantum Tunneling of Nuclei.6.2 Limiting Supersaturations of 4He-3He-Solutions.6.3 Formation of Quantum Vortices in Superfluid Helium.6.4 Quantum Nucleation Near the Boundary of Essential Instability.6.5 Quantum Cavitation in Helium.6.6 Some Other Problems of Phase Metastability.7 Explosive Boiling-Up of Cryogenic Liquids.7.1 Superheating in Outflow Processes.7.2 Vapor Explosion at the Interface of Two Different Liquids.List of Symbols.References.Index.