Analysis of pressure behavior in a temperature controlled molecular dynamic flow

Thermo-fluid properties are required for numerical modeling of nano/micro devices. These properties are mostly obtained from results of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Therefore, efforts have been put in developing methods for numerical evaluation of fluid properties, such as pressure. In this paper, the pressure behavior in a controllable nanochannel flow is investigated. The nanoflow field is created by imposing a gradient of a macroscopic property such as temperature. Details of the pressure calculation method in a molecular system and its sensitivity to the approximations made are described first. The effect of temperature rise in a uniform flow on the pressure field is studied next. Then, in the flow under a fixed mean velocity condition, the effect of temperature gradient as a controllable property on the pressure field of nanoflow is studied. Velocity, pressure and molecular density of nanoflows with various temperature gradients and different temperature levels are investigated as well. It has been found that the temperature level at which the temperature gradient is imposed, is important. A fixed temperature gradient will not always lead to the same pressure gradient at different temperature levels. Furthermore, quite interestingly, it is observed that at a fixed temperature gradient, with the variation of mean velocity the pressure field also varies.