Rayleigh's instability of Lennard-Jones liquid nanothreads simulated by molecular dynamics

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2006

Abstract

A liquid thread of radius R will break up into drops if the axial wavelength of the surface perturbation L> 2πR. If L<2πR, the thread is stable and will remain intact. This is Rayleigh's stability criterion that was derived using a continuum model. We use molecular dynamics to simulate the evolution of Lennard-Jones liquid threads with R=S, 2S, and 3S, where S is the equilibrium distance between two atoms. We find that Rayleigh's stability criterion holds, even at the molecular scale. © 2006 American Institute of Physics.

Publication Source (Journal or Book title)

Physics of Fluids

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