Ostwald ripening in multiple-bubble nuclei

The Ostwald ripening of bubbles is studied by molecular dynamics simulations involving up to 679 × 10(6) Lennard-Jones particles. Many bubbles appear after depressurizing a system that is initially maintained in the pure-liquid phase, and the coarsening of bubbles follows. The self-similarity of the bubble-size distribution function predicted by Lifshitz-Slyozov-Wagner theory is directly confirmed. The total number of bubbles decreases asymptotically as t(-x) with scaling exponent x. As the initial temperature increases, the exponent changes from x = 3/2 to 1, which implies that the growth of bubbles changes from interface-limited (the t(1/2) law) to diffusion-limited (the t(1/3) law) growth.