Molecular dynamics simulation for homogeneous nucleation of water and liquid nitrogen in explosive boiling

Abstract

Molecular dynamics simulations are carried out to study the energy conversion in the homogeneous nucleation processes of the explosive boiling induced by laser heating. Liquid nitrogen and water are investigated as the working fluid. Velocity scaling method is applied to realize the heating process. Three influencing factors, the initial equilibrium temperature of the liquid, the area of the heating zone and the heat quantity are analyzed. It is found that the conversion ratio of energy between heat quantity and potential energy is from 66% to 78% in the process of heating. The influence of the heat quantity on the energy conversion of liquid nitrogen is the same in trend as that of water. The influence of the initial equilibrium temperature and the area of the heating zone on the liquid nitrogen is less than that of water. The difference of energy conversion between water and liquid nitrogen is pretty dramatic, which is because of the hydrogen bond formed by the Coulombic interaction among water molecules. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.