NDLI: Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Bubble Formation in Nanochannels

Content Provider	The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Digital Collection
Author	Sridhar, Manoj Anthony, B. Hmelo Leonard, C. Feldman Xu, Dongyan Li, Deyu
Copyright Year	2007
Abstract	The behavior of confined fluids is of great interest due to the proliferation and applications of micro- and nanofluidic devices. Recent computational and experimental results have shown that fluids exhibit unusual phase change behavior when confined to very small length scales where the fluid physics is dominated by interactions with the confining channel walls. In particular, understanding the liquid-vapor phase transition and bubble nucleation process in confined spaces presents opportunities for making valves and pumps in nanofluidic networks. In this paper, we present molecular dynamics simulations of thermal bubble nucleation in fluids confined in nanochannels. To verify the computational models, bulk argon and bulk water were first modeled under conditions similar to those reported in the literature. The results were similar to those presented in the literature, indicating that our computational models could reproduce published data. We then modeled argon and water systems confined between two parallel silicon plates with nanometer separation. To simulate cases more extensively encountered in reality, we performed Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations in the isothermal-isobaric (NPT) ensemble by allowing the top silicon plate to move up and down under a constant external pressure during the simulation. For either the nano-confined argon or the nano-confined water system, results indicated no bubble generation under an external pressure of 0.1 MPa, even for temperatures much higher than the boiling temperature of the respective fluids at 0.1 MPa. We also observed that there was no bubble generation in either the argon or water NPT system when the external pressure was reduced to as low as 0.01 MPa. The density of the nano-confined fluids at constant temperature was observed to be independent of external pressure on the system. This suggests that the nanoconfined fluids behave like liquids with low compressibility even at temperatures close to their superheat limit.
Starting Page	1087
Ending Page	1092
Page Count	6
File Format	PDF
ISBN	079184305X
DOI	10.1115/IMECE2007-42533
e-ISBN	0791838129
Volume Number	Volume 11: Micro and Nano Systems, Parts A and B
Conference Proceedings	ASME 2007 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition
Language	English
Publisher Date	2007-11-11
Publisher Place	Seattle, Washington, USA
Access Restriction	Subscribed
Subject Keyword	Water Space Temperature Compressibility Vapors Molecular dynamics Valves Molecular dynamics simulation Separation (technology) Boiling Density Phase transitions Physics Nucleation (physics) Bubbles Fluids Simulation Pumps External pressure Plates (structures) Nanofluidics Silicon
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article

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