Eur. Phys. J. E (2014) 37: 111
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2014-14111-5

Regular Article

Scaled nucleation theory for bubble nucleation of lower alkanes

Institute of Thermomechanics ASCR, Dolejškova 5, 18200, Praha 8, Czech Republic

^* e-mail: nemec@it.cas.cz

Received: 13 August 2014
Revised: 15 October 2014
Accepted: 27 October 2014
Published online: 20 November 2014

Abstract

A scaling law for bubble nucleation data is developed based on the classical nucleation theory and a scaled surface tension correlation. The scaled approach is applied to a set of bubble nucleation data for lower alkanes available in the literature. The results are found to agree well also with the nucleation data for several other non-polar substances. The scaling approach is presented as a tool useful for checking the consistency of bubble nucleation data reported in the literature, and for predicting bubble nucleation for substances not measured experimentally.