Dynamics and Growth of Droplets Close to the Two-Phase Coexistence Curve in Fluids

TL;DR

This study uses molecular dynamics simulations to analyze droplet behavior near the vapor-liquid coexistence curve, revealing differences in equilibrium and nonequilibrium dynamics, including droplet growth, collision, and particle exchange.

Contribution

It provides detailed insights into droplet dynamics near phase coexistence, highlighting differences between equilibrium and nonequilibrium behaviors using advanced simulation techniques.

Findings

Droplet volume grows linearly with time in nonequilibrium.

Droplets maintain size between collisions despite particle exchange.

Equilibrium and nonequilibrium droplet dynamics differ significantly.

Abstract

Results from the state-of-the-art molecular dynamics simulations are presented for both equilibrium and nonequilibrium dynamics following vapor-liquid transition in a single component Lennard-Jones system. We have fixed the overall density close to the vapor-branch of the coexistence curve so that the liquid phase forms droplet structure in the background of vapor phase. In the equilibrium case, the motion of a single droplet is studied in both microcanonical and canonical ensembles, in the latter case a hydrodynamics preserving Nos\'{e}-Hoover thermostat was used to control the temperature. The droplet nucleation, motion, collision and coalescence dynamics in the nonequilibrium case were studied in the canonical ensemble with Nos\'{e}-Hoover thermostat. There it was observed that the average droplet volume grows linearly with time. Between two successive collisions, the size of the droplets remain same even though all the constituent particles do not move with the droplets \textminus some leave, others join. It is seen that the number of original particles in a droplet decays exponentially fast. Results from a liquid-liquid transition are also presented in the equilibrium context. Dynamics of droplets in equilibrium appears to be at variant with the nonequilibrium case.