A study of viscosity inhomogeneity in porous media

Abstract

The theory of transport in highly inhomogeneous systems, developed recently by Pozhar and Gubbins, and the nonequilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD) technique are employed to study the viscosity of WCA fluids confined in narrow slit pores of width 5.1 and 20σ at reduced densities ρσ3 of 0.422–0.713. Calculated quantities include the equilibrium and nonequilibrium density profiles, equilibrium pair correlation functions, flow velocity profiles, and the viscosity profiles. NEMD simulation results are compared with the theoretical predictions. The agreement is good except for the region within one molecular diameter from the walls. The viscosity was found to vary with position across the pore.