Eur. Phys. J. E (2015) 38: 132
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2015-15132-2

Regular Article

Study of critical dynamics in fluids via molecular dynamics in canonical ensemble

Theoretical Sciences Unit, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Jakkur P.O, 560064, Bangalore, India

^* e-mail: das@jncasr.ac.in

Received: 21 August 2015
Accepted: 30 November 2015
Published online: 23 December 2015

Abstract

With the objective of understanding the usefulness of thermostats in the study of dynamic critical phenomena in fluids, we present results for transport properties in a binary Lennard-Jones fluid that exhibits liquid-liquid phase transition. Various collective transport properties, calculated from the molecular dynamics (MD) simulations in canonical ensemble, with different thermostats, are compared with those obtained from MD simulations in microcanonical ensemble. It is observed that the Nosé-Hoover and dissipative particle dynamics thermostats are useful for the calculations of mutual diffusivity and shear viscosity. The Nosé-Hoover thermostat, however, as opposed to the latter, appears inadequate for the study of bulk viscosity.