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Updated: Jul 21, 2026

An Analog Macroscopic Technique for Studying Molecular Hydrodynamic Processes in Dense Gases and Liquids
Published on: December 4, 2017
Viscosity of liquid water from computer simulations with a polarizable potential model
Balucani1, Brodholt, Jedlovszky
1Istituto di Elettronica Quantistica del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Via Panciatichi 56/30, I-50127 Firenze, Italy.
Abstract:
The longitudinal and shear viscosity of water are calculated by molecular dynamics simulation with a polarizable potential model at room temperature. To overcome the difficulty of evaluating directly the stress autocorrelation function of a system with intrinsically many-body forces, we have resorted to the analysis of the wave-vector-dependent longitudinal and transverse-current correlation functions. In a memory function formalism, the generalized viscosity can be evaluated as a function of the wave vector k. By extrapolating to k=0, we find longitudinal and shear viscosity values in better agreement with the experimental value than the corresponding quantities evaluated by making use of a nonpolarizable potential model. This result points out that for a realistic reproduction of transport quantities, it is crucial to take into account many-body contributions to the interaction potential.
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