2,724 research outputs found
Histogram analysis as a method for determining the line tension by Monte-Carlo simulations
A method is proposed for determining the line tension, which is the main
physical characteristic of a three-phase contact region, by Monte-Carlo (MC)
simulations. The key idea of the proposed method is that if a three-phase
equilibrium involves a three-phase contact region, the probability distribution
of states of a system as a function of two order parameters depends not only on
the surface tension, but also on the line tension. This probability
distribution can be obtained as a normalized histogram by appropriate MC
simulations, so one can use the combination of histogram analysis and
finite-size scaling to study the properties of a three phase contact region.
Every histogram and results extracted therefrom will depend on the size of the
simulated system. Carrying out MC simulations for a series of system sizes and
extrapolating the results, obtained from the corresponding series of
histograms, to infinite size, one can determine the line tension of the three
phase contact region and the interfacial tensions of all three interfaces (and
hence the contact angles) in an infinite system. To illustrate the proposed
method, it is applied to the three-dimensional ternary fluid mixture, in which
molecular pairs of like species do not interact whereas those of unlike species
interact as hard spheres. The simulated results are in agreement with
expectations
An Equation of State of Gases at High Temperatures and Densities
State equation of molecular gas at high temperatures and densitie
Formation of capillary bridges in AFM-like geometry
We discuss the phase diagram of fluid confined in AFM-like geometry. It
combines the properties of capillary condensation and complete filling of a
wedge.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure
The influence of line tension on the formation of liquid bridges
The formation of liquid bridges between a planar and conical substrates is
analyzed macroscopically taking into account the line tension. Depending on the
value of the line tension coefficient \tau and geometric parameters of the
system one observes two different scenarios of liquid bridge formation upon
changing the fluid state along the bulk liquid-vapor coexistence. For \tau >
\tau * (\tau * < 0) there is a first-order transition to a state with
infinitely thick liquid bridge. For \tau < \tau * the scenario consists of two
steps: first there is a first-order transition to a state with liquid bridge of
finite thickness which upon further increase of temperature is followed by
continuous growth of the thickness of the bridge to infinity. In addition to
constructing the relevant phase diagram we examine the dependence of the width
of the bridge on thermodynamic and geometric parameters of the system.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Stability of freely falling granular streams
A freely falling stream of weakly cohesive granular particles is modeled and
analysed with help of event driven simulations and continuum hydrodynamics. The
former show a breakup of the stream into droplets, whose size is measured as a
function of cohesive energy. Extensional flow is an exact solution of the
one-dimensional Navier-Stokes equation, corresponding to a strain rate,
decaying like 1/t from its initial value, gammaDot0. Expanding around this
basic state, we show that the flow is stable for short times (gammaDot0 * t <<
1), whereas for long times (gammaDot0 * t >> 1) perturbations of all wavelength
grow. The growthrate of a given wavelength depends on the instant of time when
the fluctuation occurs, so that the observable patterns can vary considerably.Comment: 4 page, 5 figures. Submitted to PRL. Supplementary material: see
http://wwwuser.gwdg.de/~sulrich/research/#Publication
Reply to Comment on: "Are stress-free membranes really 'tensionless'?"
This is a reply to a comment on the paper arXiv:1204.2075 "Are stress-free
membranes really tensionless ?" (EPL 95,28008 (2011))
Sedimentation of a two-dimensional colloidal mixture exhibiting liquid-liquid and gas-liquid phase separation: a dynamical density functional theory study
We present dynamical density functional theory results for the time evolution
of the density distribution of a sedimenting model two-dimensional binary
mixture of colloids. The interplay between the bulk phase behaviour of the
mixture, its interfacial properties at the confining walls, and the
gravitational field gives rise to a rich variety of equilibrium and
non-equilibrium morphologies. In the fluid state, the system exhibits both
liquid-liquid and gas-liquid phase separation. As the system sediments, the
phase separation significantly affects the dynamics and we explore situations
where the final state is a coexistence of up to three different phases. Solving
the dynamical equations in two-dimensions, we find that in certain situations
the final density profiles of the two species have a symmetry that is different
from that of the external potentials, which is perhaps surprising, given the
statistical mechanics origin of the theory. The paper concludes with a
discussion on this
Transient cavities and the excess chemical potentials of hard-spheroid solutes in dipolar hard sphere solvents
Monte Carlo computer simulations are used to study transient cavities and the
solvation of hard-spheroid solutes in dipolar hard sphere solvents. The
probability distribution of spheroidal cavities in the solvent is shown to be
well described by a Gaussian function, and the variations of fit parameters
with cavity elongation and solvent properties are analyzed. The excess chemical
potentials of hard-spheroid solutes with aspect ratios in the range , and with volumes between one and twenty times that of a solvent
molecule, are presented. It is shown that for a given molecular volume and
solvent dipole moment (or temperature) a spherical solute has the lowest excess
chemical potential and hence the highest solubility, while a prolate solute
with aspect ratio should be more soluble than an oblate solute with aspect
ratio . For a given solute molecule, the excess chemical potential
increases with increasing temperature; this same trend is observed in the case
of hydrophobic solvation. To help interpret the simulation results, comparison
is made with a scaled-particle theory that requires prior knowledge of a
solute-solvent interfacial tension and the pure-solvent equation of state,
which parameters are obtained from simulation results for spherical solutes.
The theory shows excellent agreement with simulation results over the whole
range of solute elongations considered.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figure
Direct calculation of interfacial tensions from computer simulation: Results for freely jointed tangent hard sphere chains
We develop a methodology for the calculation of surface free energies based
on the probability distribution of a wandering interface. Using a simple
extension of the NpT sampling, we allow the interface area to randomly probe
the available space and evaluate the surface free energy from histogram
analysis and the corresponding average. The method is suitable for studying
systems with either continuous or discontinuous potentials, as it does not
require explicit evaluation of the virial. The proposed algorithm is compared
with known results for the surface tension of Lennard--Jones and Square Well
fluid, as well as for the interface tension of a bead--spring polymer model and
good agreement is found. We also calculate interfacial tensions of freely
jointed tangent hard sphere chains on athermal walls for a wide range of chain
lengths and densities. The results are compared with three different
theoretical approaches, Scaled Particle Theory, the Yu and Wu density
functional theory and an analytical approximation based on the latter approach.
Whereas SPT only yields qualitative results, the last two approaches are found
to yield very good agreement with simulations.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figures, Phys. Rev. E in press
Dielectrophoresis model for the colossal electroresistance of phase-separated manganites
We propose a dielectrophoresis model for phase-separated manganites. Without
increase of the fraction of metallic phase, an insulator-metal transition
occurs when a uniform electric field applied across the system exceeds a
threshold value. Driven by the dielectrophoretic force, the metallic clusters
reconfigure themselves into stripes along the direction of electric field,
leading to the filamentous percolation. This process, which is time-dependent,
irreversible and anisotropic, is a probable origin of the colossal
electroresistance in manganites.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
- …