Is it easier to produce hydrodynamic cavitation in a liquid close to boiling point?


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> Cavitation is defined as the process of formation of the vapor phase of a liquid when it is subjected to reduced pressures at constant ambient temperature. Thus, it is the process of boiling in a liquid as a result of pressure reduction rather than heat addition. [Source](https://web.mit.edu/hml/ncfmf/16CAV.pdf)
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Hence, if the liquid is already boiling, does it then reduce the energy needed to produce cavitation, of the sort which can then damage solid materials through the collapse of the bubbles?


E.g. If a pump's impeller in a water pipe is able to operate in 25°C water at just below the speed at which cavitation starts to occur and damage it, if one then raises the temperature of the water to 90°C, will cavitation then occur and start damaging it, (all else held constant)? (Obviously heating the liquid may produce/exacerbate other harmful effects also, but just interested in the cavitation effect)




Your presumption is absolutely correct! This was answered on [Physics Stack Exchange](https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/305671/how-cavitation-depends-on-temperature), too.


However, the relation between temperature and cavitation is *far* from linear, as discussed in [*Water cavitation from ambient to high temperatures*](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-99863-z) by Magaletti1, Gallo and Casciola (*kudos* to the authors for making this open access, *not* behind a paywall!).


BTW, consider boiling plain water in a microwave. After boiling a while to remove dissolved air, and then cooling and *re*heating, a container filled with [superheated](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superheating) liquid is ready to flash into vapor, in effect cavitating *explosively*. When I did that accidentally, reheating water for tea, on touching the microwave door button to remove the cup before the timer expired, the water suddenly boiled, slamming open the door from the pressure, blowing the interlock fuse. Luckily, I was protected by that door from serious scalding.


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