A numerical test of stress correlations in fluctuating hydrodynamics

Abstract

The correlations of the fluctuating stress tensor are calculated in an equilibrium molecular-dynamics simulation of a Lennard--Jones liquid. We define a coarse-grained local stress tensor which can be calculated numerically and which allows for the first time to determine the stress correlation function both in time and in space. Our findings corroborate the assumptions made in fluctuating hydrodynamics as long as the liquid is isotropic, that is in bulk. In the vicinity of a rigid plate, however, the isotropy is restricted, and major modifications must be done with respect to the usual theory. Among these are the appearance of five different viscosities instead of two and a non-trivial dependence of the distance from the wall. We determine these viscosities from the simulation data and find that their values are very different from the bulk values. We further find much longer relaxation times of the stress correlations than in bulk.

12 pages, 10 figures. To be published in the special issue "Stochastic Processes in Physics and Chemistry" of Chemical Physics, on occasion of Peter Hanggi's 60th birthday