A comparison of rigid and flexible water models in collisions of monomers and small clusters

In this study we have investigated the dynamics of small water clusters using microcanonical molecular dynamics simulations. The clusters are formed by colliding vapor monomers with target clusters of two and five molecules. The monomers are sampled from a thermal ensemble at T=300 K and target clusters with several total energies are considered. We compare rigid extended simple point charge water with flexible counterparts having intramolecular harmonic bonds with force constants 10(3) and 10(5) kcal(mol A2). We show that the lifetimes of the clusters formed via collision process are similar for the rigid model and the flexible model with the bigger force constant, if the translational temperatures of the target cluster molecules are equal. The model with the smaller force constant results in much longer lifetimes due to the stabilizing effect caused by the kinetic energy transfer into internal vibration of the molecules. This process may take several hundreds of picoseconds, giving rise to time-dependent decay rates of constant-energy clusters. A study of binary collisions of water molecules shows that the introduction of flexibility to the molecules increases the possibility of dimer formation and thus offers an alternative route for dimer production in vapors. Our results imply that allowing for internal degrees of freedom is likely to enhance gas-liquid nucleation rates in water simulations.