Argon Shear Viscosity via a Lennard-Jones Potential with Equilibrium and Nonequilibrium Molecular Dynamics

Nonequilibrium molecular dynamic simulation of liquid argon yields the strain-rate dependence of shear viscosity. Near the triple point the apparent viscosity decreases with increasing strain rate; the extrapolated zero-gradient viscosity is consistent with the equilibrium Green-Kubo viscosity calculated by Levesque, Verlet, and Kurkijarvi. At higher temperatures along the saturated vapor pressure line, our results are insensitive to the strain rate and agree well with experimental data for liquid argon.