to reach the critical radius therefore provides a barrier to cavitation and stabilizes the liquid phase. Following the approach of Fisher [@Fisher1948] and Zeldovich [@Zeldovich1992], an expression can be obtained which expresses the volumetric rate of formation of critical bubbles as a function of the tension in the fluid [@Bogach2000],

$$\label{eq:6}
J=\frac{N_0\sigma}{\eta}\left(\frac{\sigma}{kT}\right)^{\frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{-16\pi \sigma^3}{3P^2kT}\right),$$

where $N_0$ is the number of molecules per unit volume. As noted by Fisher and Zeldovich, Eq. \[eq:6\] can be used to determine the critical tension ($P=P_\mathrm{s}$) for cavitation by substituting a reasonable value for the nucleation rate ($J$). Indeed, Fisher [@Fisher1948] showed that varying the nucleation rate over a range of to only changes the value of critical tension obtained in the calculation by a factor of 1.58. The exponential factor is the dominant term in Eq. \[eq:6\], and it should therefore be expected that the critical tension is relatively insensitive to the viscosity of the fluid or the rate at which tension is applied. Bogach and Utkin [@Bogach2000] noted that from Eq. \[eq:6\], the relationship between the critical tension and strain rate should follow the empirical expression below

$$\label{eq:7}
P_\mathrm{s}\approx \frac{A}{\left[\mathrm{ln}\left(\frac{B}{\dot{\epsilon}}\right)\right]^{\frac{1}{2}}},$$

where $A$ and $B$ are constants. Model curves based on the homogeneous nucleation theory 