Simulation of the athermal coarsening of composites structured by a uniaxial field
- Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185 (United States)
We report the results of a computer simulation of the evolution of structure in a two component fluid consisting of a liquid phase and a dispersed colloidal phase subjected to a uniaxial field. Our primary objective is to understand the mechanism and kinetics of coarsening and the emergence of crystallinity. Using an efficient, linear-N simulation method we report studies of systems of N=10000 particles over the concentration range of 10{endash}50 vol{percent}. We present a variety of methods of characterizing the structures that emerge, including the anisotropy of the conductivity, capacitance and dipolar interaction energy, the two-dimensional pair correlation function, principal moments of the gyration tensor, velocity correlation functions, microcrystallinity and coordination number, and the optical attenuation length. We conclude that athermal coarsening is effectively driven by the presence of defect structures and that as the concentration increases, the structures progressively lose the well-known {open_quotes}chain{close_quotes} anisotropy evinced at low concentration. {copyright} {ital 1998 American Institute of Physics.}
- OSTI ID:
- 613987
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Chemical Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Chemical Physics Journal Issue: 9 Vol. 108; ISSN JCPSA6; ISSN 0021-9606
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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