Shear Thinning in Lennard-Jones Fluids by Stochastic Dissipative Molecular Dynamics Simulation

Abstract: The shear viscosity of a Lennard-Jones fluid is obtained by stochastic dissipative molecular dynamics (SDMD) simulations. A generic constraint to the equations of motion is given that reduces the sensitivity of the shear viscosity to the value of the the fluctuation-dissipation or thermostat parameter. At high shear rates the shear viscosity becomes dependent on the size of the system, and corrections to the equipartition kinetic temperature arise. At constant kinetic temperature the shear viscosity is shown to decrease with increasing shear rate.