In this paper, molecular dynamics simulations are conducted to analyze the bubble formation in liquid argon on a platinum surface with a cavity. Comparisons are made between the channels with and without the cavity on the lower wall; varying argon densities and surface wettabilities are also examined. The cavity on the surface can significantly enhance the growth of the bubble. The argon atoms in the cavity experience large repulsive forces, repulsive force gradients, density gradients and potential energy along the z axis, which are much larger than those near the plane surface. The argon atoms at the bottom of the cavity seem to be crystallized with all the hydrophilic surfaces, while for the argon atoms near the plane surface, they are solid-like with the strong hydrophilic surface and fluid-like with the weak hydrophilic surface. For the hydrophobic surfaces, there are few atoms in the cavity, and large fluctuations of density are observed near the surface. The plane surface shows almost the same density distributions as the cavity surface, and the surface feature seems to be irrelevant to the bubble formation. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.