Empirical relationships of homogeneous bubble nucleation, growth and coalescence in rhyolitic melt

Abstract:

Decompression experiments of homogeneous nucleation, growth and coalescence of bubbles in rhyolitic melt provide new data for an empirical formulation to predict bubble number density and size from controlled experimental conditions. Samples were hydrated at 200-250 MPa and 850 °C to water contents of 5.4-6.0 wt%, followed by decompression at rates of 60-150 MPa.s^-1. Samples were held at final pressures for 6-90 s, allowing for bubble growth and coalescence after decompression and nucleation. Scanning electron microscopic (SEM) images and computed tomography (CT) scans of the decompressed glasses were analyzed for size distributions of both isolated and coalesced bubbles separately. Sample porosities vary from 4% to 63%, and connected porosity is positively correlated with total porosity for samples where it is greater than approximately 35%. A steep increase in the proportion of connected bubbles is observed once the average bubble wall thickness becomes lower than approximately 2 μm. In combination with SEM, CT and bubble size distributions these results indicate that bubble coalescence is independent of bubble size. Bubble number density varies from 8.9×10¹¹ m⁻³ to 4.4×10¹⁶ m⁻³ (melt-referenced), and is positively correlated with the degree of supersaturation (130-210 MPa), as well as initial water content. For most experiments, we do not observe any increase in bubble number density after 10-20 s, suggesting that bubble nucleation has stopped. The bubble number density does not show a systematic correlation with decompression rate.