The classical theory of homogeneous nucleation describes well the superheat threshold observed in experiments. It may be assumed therefore that homogeneous boiling-up of a liquid takes place in experiments, and the theory has been verified experimentally well. The streak photography used in this study showed that boiling-up of a superheated liquid at the threshold of the achievable superheat occurs at a limited number of surface fluctuation centers in a vessel, rather than in the bulk as one would expect with homogeneous nucleation. Thus, the homogeneous theory, which rather accurately describes the heterogeneous threshold of the achievable superheat, obviously is not confirmed in experiments.
In this communication, we discuss the phenomenon of attainable superheat of liquid and the peculiarities of its release by spontaneous boiling-up. We have combined the apparatus for superheating, namely, bubble chamber, with a high speed micro-optical method for detailed monitoring of the initial stage of boiling-up. In experiments on the isothermal pressure drop, it was found that the boiling-up onset of n-hexane is accompanied by characteristic step signal. The signal has proved to be typical of the heterogeneous character of boiling-up onset in a whole range of superheating degrees. The performance of the method for investigation of the refractive index and density for superheated liquids as functions of temperature and pressure has been revealed. The experimental error is estimated to be 0.1%.
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