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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Thermal Nucleation And Cavitation In Helium-3 Fluids, Xiao Cheng Zeng, D.W. Oxtoby, E. Cheng
Thermal Nucleation And Cavitation In Helium-3 Fluids, Xiao Cheng Zeng, D.W. Oxtoby, E. Cheng
Xiao Cheng Zeng Publications
We have investigated droplet nucleation and bubble cavitation in the quantum fluid helium-3 based on a nonlocal density-functional approach. A marked effect of droplet (or bubble) curvature on the rate of droplet nucleation or cavitation has been found. Without considering this curvature effect (as in the classical theory of nucleation) the droplet nucleation rate for helium-3 could be underestimated (i.e., near 1 K) or overestimated (i.e., near 2.5 K) by orders of magnitude, respectively; for bubble cavitation, the rate could be underestimated by more than twenty orders of magnitude (near 1 K).
Gas–Liquid Nucleation In Two-Dimensional Fluids, Xiao Cheng Zeng
Gas–Liquid Nucleation In Two-Dimensional Fluids, Xiao Cheng Zeng
Xiao Cheng Zeng Publications
A nonclassical theory of nucleation, based on the density-functional (DF) approach, is developed for the gas–liquid transitions of two-dimensional (2D) Lennard-Jones (LJ) fluids. The methods of Weeks–Chandler–Andersen perturbation theory are used to approximate the LJ potential with a temperature-dependent hard-disk diameter plus an attractive tail. The resulting free energy functional is then used to calculate the free energy barrier to nucleation. We find that the curvature of the 2D nucleus is not important to the rate of nucleation (in contrast to the 3D counterpart). The effect of curvature is readily inferred from the ratio of nucleation rate from classical Becker–Dö̈ring …