What is the formation of vapour bubbles of a flowing liquid in a region where its pressure falls below its vapour pressure?
Cavitation in the fluid. Cavitation Cavitation is the formation of vapour cavities in a liquid, small liquid-free zones ("bubbles" or "voids"), that are the consequence of forces acting upon the liquid. It usually occurs when a liquid is subjected to rapid changes of pressure that cause the formation of cavities in the liquid where the pressure is relatively low. When subjected to higher pressure, the voids implode and can generate an intense shock wave. Cavitation is a significant cause of wear in some engineering contexts. Collapsing voids that implode near to a metal surface cause cyclic stress through repeated implosion. This
Vapour pressure of water Vapour pressure of water The vapour pressure of water is the pressure at which water vapour is in thermodynamic equilibrium with its condensed state. At higher pressures water would condense. The water vapour pressure is the partial pressure of water vapour in any gas mixture in equilibrium with solid or liquid water. As for other substances, water vapour pressure is a function of temperature and can be determined with the Clausius–Clapeyron relation. There are many published approximations for calculating saturated vapour pressure over water and over ice. Some of these are (in approximate order of increasing accuracy): where temperature is