Local viscosity of a fluid confined in a narrow pore

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2012 Aug;86(2 Pt 1):021202. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.86.021202. Epub 2012 Aug 20.

Abstract

In this paper, molecular dynamics simulations of a simple Lennard-Jones fluid confined in narrow slit pores and undergoing shear have been performed. The aim is to investigate the effects of density inhomogeneities at the fluid-solid interfaces on the shear viscosity profiles. It has been found that the local viscosity was varying strongly with the distance from the solid walls for both dilute and dense fluid states with oscillations correlated to the density ones. To describe the computed viscosity profiles, we propose a scheme that uses the local average density model, combined with an adequate weight function, for the configurational viscosity and a semiempirical model for the translational viscosity. It is shown that the proposed approach is able to provide viscosity profiles in good agreement with those coming from simulations for different pore widths and for different fluid states (dilute to dense).

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't