Recent theoretical work on the microscopic structure and surface tension of the liquid-vapour interface of simple (argon-like) fluids is critically reviewed. In particular, the form of pairwise intermolecular correlations in the liquid surface and the capillary wave treatment of the interface are examined in some detail. It is argued that conventional capillary wave theory, which leads to divergences in the width of the density profile, is unsatisfactory for describing all the equilibrium aspects of the interface. The density functional formalism which has been developed to study the liquid-vapour interface can also be profitably applied to other problems in the statistical mechanics of non-uniform fluids; here a new generalization of the ‘linear’ theory of spinodal decomposition is formulated and by considering a ‘nearly uniform’ fluid, some useful results for the long-wavelength behaviour of the liquid structure factor of various monatomic liquids are obtained. Some other topics of current inte...

The nature of the liquid-vapour interface and other topics in the statistical mechanics of non-uniform, classical fluids

A contact line is formed at the intersection of two immiscible fluids and a solid. That the mutual interaction between the three materials in the immediate vicinity of a contact line can significantly affect the statics as well as the dynamics of an entire flow field is demonstrated by the behavior of two immiscible fluids in a capillary. It is well known that the height to which a column of liquid will rise in a vertical circular capillary with small radius, a, whose lower end is placed into a bath, is given by (2(j/apg) cos (), where (j is the surface tension of the air/liquid interface, f) is the static contact angle as measured from the liquid side of the contact line, p is the density, and g is the magnitude of the accelera­ tion due to gravity.! Thus, depending on the value of the contact angle, e, which is a direct consequence of the molecular interactions among the three materials at the contact line, the height can take on any value within the interval [ 2(J/apg, 2(J/apg]. In a sense, the influence of the contact angle is indirect: the contact angle, in capillaries with small radii, controls the radius of curvature of the meniscus which, in turn, regulates the pressure in the liquid under the meniscus. It is this pressure that determines the height of the column. In a similar manner, the dynamic contact angle can influence the rate of displacement of tbe meniscus through the capillary. The pressure drop

Liquids on solid surfaces: static and dynamic contact lines

The physics of moving wetting lines

Molecular dynamics simulations have been performed to study the liquid–vapor equilibrium of water as a function of temperature. The orthobaric densities and the surface tension of water are reported for temperatures from 316 K until 573 K. The extended simple point charge (SPC/E) interaction potential for water molecules is used with full Ewald summation. The normal and tangential components of the pressure tensor were calculated and are presented at 328 K. The nature of the long‐range contribution to the surface tension has been studied in detail. At 328 K the calculated surface tension is 66.0±3.0 mN m−1 in comparison with the experimental value of 67 mN m−1. The simulated surface tensions between 316 K and 573 K are in good agreement with experiment. The orthobaric densities are in better agreement with experimental values than those obtained from the Gibbs ensemble calculation for the SPC model of water.

Molecular dynamics simulation of the orthobaric densities and surface tension of water

In a preceding project, functional forms for “short” Helmholtz energy equations of state for typical nonpolar and weakly polar fluids and for typical polar fluids were developed using simultaneous optimization. In this work, the coefficients of these short forms for the equations of state have been fitted for the fluids acetone, carbon monoxide, carbonyl sulfide, decane, hydrogen sulfide, 2-methylbutane (isopentane), 2,2-dimethylpropane (neopentane), 2-methylpentane (isohexane), krypton, nitrous oxide, nonane, sulfur dioxide, toluene, xenon, hexafluoroethane (R-116), 1,1-dichloro-1-fluoroethane (R-141b), 1-chloro-1,1-difluoroethane (R-142b), octafluoropropane (R-218), 1,1,1,3,3-pentafluoropropane (R-245fa), and fluoromethane (R-41). The 12 coefficients of the equations of state were fitted to substance specific data sets. The results show that simultaneously optimized functional forms can be applied to other fluids out of the same class of fluids for which they were optimized without significant loss of a...

Short Fundamental Equations of State for 20 Industrial Fluids

The gas–liquid surface of a system of Lennard-Jones (12, 6) molecules has been simulated by Monte Carlo and by Molecular Dynamic methods at temperatures which span most of the liquid range. For systems of 255 molecules the two methods lead to similar results and this agreement confirms that the density profile, as a function of height, falls monotonically from the density of the bulk liquid to that of the gas. The thickness of the surface layer is sensitive to the surface area, and appears to approach its thermodynamic limit for surface areas of 400σ2 for a system of 4080 molecules. The density profile can be represented by a hyperbolic tangent of an appropriately scaled height. The thickness of the surface is of the order of two molecular diameters at temperatures near the triple point and increases rapidly as the critical point is approached. The computed surfacetens ions agree well with those calculated by statistical perturbation theory.Monte Carlo and Molecular Dynamic simulation of a binary mixture shows clearly the adsorption of the component of higher vapour pressure; the amount absorbed agrees with that calculated from Gibbs's isotherm.

Computer simulation of a gas–liquid surface. Part 1

The gas/liquid surface of a system of 255 Lennard-Jones (12,6) molecules has been simulated by Monte Carlo sequences at three reduced temperatures which span most of the liquid range. The results at the two higher temperatures show a monotonic profile of density as a function of height, but those at a temperature close to the triple point suggest that the liquid just below the surface can form layers; that is, that local density is an oscillatory function of height. This phenomenon is compared with similar previous results and it is concluded that it may well be the consequence of the constraints applied to the simulated system rather than an inherent property of a free liquid surface.Preliminary densities for a mixture have also been calculated.

Computer simulation of the gas/liquid surface

A molecular dynamics simulation procedure has been used to determine the angle of contact, θ, between a gas, a liquid and a plane solid surface. The molecules in the fluid phases interact with one another according to a Lennard-Jones (12, 6) potential and with the solid surface according to a (9, 3) potential. It is found that Young's equation γSV=γLV cos θ+γSL, where the γ's are surface tensions, is incapable of representing the observed results.

G. Saville

Papers

Computer simulation of a gas–liquid surface. Part 1

Computer simulation of the gas/liquid surface

Computer simulation of the liquid–solid–vapour contact angle

Modelling of two-phase blowdown from pipelines—II. A simplified numerical method for multi-component mixtures

Modelling of two-phase blowdown from pipelines—I. A hyperbolic model based on variational principles