Metastable Liquid Cavitation Control (With Memory) Apparatus, Methodology, and Results: For Radiation Detection, Reactor Safety, and Other Industrial Applications

We present a method to simultaneously pressurize fluid filled containers from outside and within, results of experiments with temporary 2 h of fluid precompression followed by overpressure removal before testing for cavitation strength and sensitivity to neutron radiation of multi-mL quantities of widely used unfiltered and undegassed liquids, such as water, ethanol, and dodecane (a surrogate jet fuel), enclosed within containers using glass, epoxy, and steel. We found that in contrast to prior methods involving laborious degassing and purification, a straightforward one-step approach using only a modest 2 h precompression treatment at a pressure of 0.7+ MPa enabled us, reproducibly, to reach directly the highest attainable “negative” (subvacuum) pressures attainable in our apparatus (−0.7 MPa)—enabling efficient sensitivity to neutron-type radiation. Cavitation strength results are explained on theoretical grounds. However, surprisingly using the technique of this paper, the 2-h precompressed (unfiltered, undegassed) fluid also retained memory of this property, after the overpressure was removed, even 3 months later—thereby suggesting that active cavitation nuclei suppression can be extended to long periods of time. Successful results for cavitation suppression (in the absence of ionizing radiation) through −0.7 MPa were also attainable for fluids in simultaneous contact with a combination of glass, steel, and epoxy surfaces. The relative importance of cavitation strength retention at liquid–wall interfaces versus within the bulk of the fluids is reported along with implications for high-efficiency nuclear particle detection and spectroscopy, and nuclear fission water reactor safety thermal-hydraulic assessments for blowdown transients.