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Related Concept Videos

Diffusion01:21

Diffusion

Diffusion is a type of passive transport. In passive transport, a substance tends to move from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration until the concentration is equal across the space. For example, take the diffusion of substances through the air. When someone opens a perfume bottle in a room filled with people, the perfume is at its highest concentration in the bottle and is at its lowest at the edges of the room. The perfume vapor will diffuse, or spread away, from the...
Diffusion01:12

Diffusion

Diffusion is the passive movement of substances down their concentration gradients—requiring no expenditure of cellular energy. Substances, such as molecules or ions, diffuse from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration in the cytosol or across membranes. Eventually, the concentration will even out, with the substance moving randomly but causing no net change in concentration. Such a state is called dynamic equilibrium, which is essential for maintaining overall...
Carrier Transport01:21

Carrier Transport

The generation of electrical current in semiconductors is fundamentally driven by two mechanisms: drift and diffusion. These processes are essential for the functionality and performance of semiconductor-based devices.
Drift Current:
The drift of charge carriers is started by an external electric field (E). Charged particles, such as electrons and holes, experience an acceleration between collisions with lattice atoms. For electrons, this results in a drift velocity (vd) given by:
Behavior of Gas Molecules: Molecular Diffusion, Mean Free Path, and Effusion03:48

Behavior of Gas Molecules: Molecular Diffusion, Mean Free Path, and Effusion

Although gaseous molecules travel at tremendous speeds (hundreds of meters per second), they collide with other gaseous molecules and travel in many different directions before reaching the desired target. At room temperature, a gaseous molecule will experience billions of collisions per second. The mean free path is the average distance a molecule travels between collisions. The mean free path increases with decreasing pressure; in general, the mean free path for a gaseous molecule will be...
Reynolds Transport Theorem01:24

Reynolds Transport Theorem

The Reynolds transport theorem provides a framework to relate the time rate of change of an extensive property within a system to that in a control volume, which is crucial for analyzing fluid dynamics. Extensive properties, such as mass, velocity, acceleration, temperature, and momentum, can be expressed in terms of the mass of a fluid portion. These properties are called extensive because they depend on the system's size, while intensive properties are their corresponding values per unit mass.
Mechanisms of Heat Transfer II01:20

Mechanisms of Heat Transfer II

In convection, thermal energy is carried by the large-scale flow of matter. Ocean currents and large-scale atmospheric circulation, which result from the buoyancy of warm air and water, transfer hot air from the tropics toward the poles and cold air from the poles toward the tropics. The Earth’s rotation interacts with those flows, causing the observed eastward flow of air in the temperate zones. Convection dominates heat transfer by air, and the amount of available space for the airflow...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 1, 2026

The Diffusion of Passive Tracers in Laminar Shear Flow
08:01

The Diffusion of Passive Tracers in Laminar Shear Flow

Published on: May 1, 2018

Diffusive transport by thermal velocity fluctuations.

Aleksandar Donev1, John B Bell, Anton de la Fuente

  • 1Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University, New York, New York 10012, USA. donev@courant.nyu.edu

Physical Review Letters
|June 15, 2011
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Thermal velocity fluctuations enhance diffusion in fluid mixtures. This effect, crucial for small systems, depends on system size, growing logarithmically in 2D and inversely in 3D.

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Last Updated: Jun 1, 2026

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Area of Science:

  • Fluid dynamics
  • Statistical mechanics
  • Transport phenomena

Background:

  • Understanding diffusion in fluid mixtures is key.
  • Thermal velocity fluctuations can impact transport properties.
  • Previous theories often neglect these fluctuations in small systems.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To quantify the contribution of advection by thermal velocity fluctuations to effective diffusion.
  • To compare theoretical predictions with simulation results.
  • To investigate the system-size dependence of this phenomenon.

Main Methods:

  • Developed a simple fluctuating hydrodynamics theory.
  • Performed particle simulations.
  • Conducted finite-volume simulations.

Main Results:

  • Theory shows good agreement with simulations.
  • Diffusive transport enhancement depends on system size (L).
  • Quasi-2D systems show ln(L/L₀) growth; 3D systems show L₀⁻¹ - L⁻¹ scaling.

Conclusions:

  • Fluctuations significantly influence hydrodynamics in small-scale systems.
  • Advection by thermal velocity fluctuations is a critical factor in effective diffusion.
  • The findings provide insights into nanoscale transport phenomena.