Kinetics of Phase Separation in Fluids: A Molecular Dynamics Study

TL;DR

This paper uses advanced molecular dynamics simulations to study the kinetics of phase separation in fluids, revealing linear growth regimes, morphological similarities with solids, and unique velocity field features.

Contribution

It introduces a coarse-graining approach for MD simulations and provides detailed analysis of phase separation dynamics in fluids.

Findings

Extended linear growth in viscous hydrodynamic regime

Morphological similarities between fluid and solid coarsening

Presence of monopole-like defects in velocity fields

Abstract

We present results from extensive 3-d molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of phase separation kinetics in fluids. A coarse-graining procedure is used to obtain state-of-the-art MD results. We observe an extended period of temporally linear growth in the viscous hydrodynamic regime. The morphological similarity of coarsening in fluids and solids is also quantified. The velocity field is characterized by the presence of monopole-like defects, which yield a generalized Porod tail in the corresponding structure factor.