Structural and rheological properties of n-decane confined between graphite surfaces

We report a constant-volume and constant-pressure molecular dynamics study of the fluid structure. flow boundary condition, and shear viscosity of n-decane confined between graphite surfaces under various shear rates at 480 K using an anisotropic united atom model. The effect of surface corrugation, wall-fluid interaction strength, and load on these properties is investigated in this work. Our results show that the surface corrugation has a pronounced effect on rheological properties, but not on structural and orientational properties at the temperature studied. The shear thinning behavior of the confined fluids is observed for all cases under the shear rates studied. Our results also show that the velocity profile deviates more from the perfect linear profile with increasing surface corrugation, wall-fluid interaction strength, shear rate, and normal load. Slip occurs throughout the range of parameters studied. The fluid layers near the walls could be locked to each other even though slip occurs at the solid-fluid interface. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.