Capillary Waves at Liquid/Vapor Interfaces: A Molecular Dynamics Simulation
Evidence for capillary waves at a liquid/vapor interface are presented from extensive molecular dynamics simulations of a system containing up to 1.24 million Lennard-Jones particles. Careful measurements show that the total interfacial width depends logarithmically on L{sub {parallel}}, the length of the simulation cell parallel to the interface, as predicted theoretically. The strength of the divergence of the interfacial width on L{sub {parallel}} depends inversely on the surface tension {gamma}. This allows us to measure {gamma} two ways since {gamma} can also be obtained from the difference in the pressure parallel and perpendicular to the interface. These two independent measures of {gamma} agree provided that the interfacial order parameter profile is fit to an error function and not a hyperbolic tangent, as often assumed. We explore why these two common fitting functions give different results for {gamma}.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- US Department of Energy (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC04-94AL85000
- OSTI ID:
- 9474
- Report Number(s):
- SAND99-1912J; TRN: AH200124%%275
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review E, Other Information: Submitted to Physical Review E; PBD: 16 Jul 1999
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Effect of an external field on capillary waves in a dipolar fluid
Local pressure components and interfacial tension at a liquid-solid interface obtained by the perturbative method in the Lennard-Jones system