We consider the development of pre-breakdown cavitation nanopores appearing in the dielectric fluid under the influence of the electrostrictive stresses in the inhomogeneous pulsed electric field. It is shown that three characteristic regions can be distinguished near the needle electrode. In the first region, where the electric field gradient is greatest, the cavitation nanopores, occurring during the voltage nanosecond pulse, may grow to the size at which an electron accelerated by the field inside the pores can acquire enough energy for excitation and ionization of the liquid on the opposite pore wall, i.e., the breakdown conditions are satisfied. In the second region, the negative pressure caused by the electrostriction is large enough for the cavitation initiation (which can be registered by optical methods), but, during the voltage pulse, the pores do not reach the size at which the potential difference across their borders becomes sufficient for ionization or excitation of water molecules. And, in the third, the development of cavitation is impossible, due to an insufficient level of the negative pressure: in this area, the spontaneously occurring micropores do not grow and collapse under the influence of surface tension forces. This paper discusses the expansion dynamics of the cavitation pores and their most probable shape.
I. Introduction.A mechanism for the rapid breakdown in the fluid, associated with the occurrence of cavitation ruptures under the influence of the electrostrictive forces near the needle electrode, was proposed in [1]. Later, a hydrodynamic model of compressible fluid motion under the influence of the ponderomotive electrostrictive forces in a non-uniform time dependent electric field was suggested in [2]. As shown in [2], if the voltage on the needle electrode is growing fast enough (a few nanoseconds), the negative stress is created in liquid, and it may be sufficient for the cavitation formation. A nanosecond breakdown, the beginning of which can be explained by the formation of cavitation in a stretched liquid due to electrostriction, was investigated experimentally in [3][4][5][6][7]. In [8], based on a theoretical model [2], it had been shown experimentally that the initial stage of development of a nanosecond breakdown in liquids is associated with the appearance of discontinuities in the liquid (cavitation) under the influence of electrostriction forces. The comparison of the experimentally measured area dimensions and its temporal development was found to be in a good agreement with the theoretical calculations. A theory of the cavitation initiation in inhomogeneous pulsed electric field was developed in [9], as well as the method that allows to determine the critical parameters, at which cavitation begins, on the basis of the comparison between the experiment and the simulation results within the framework of hydrodynamics of compressible fluids, was proposed.