Fluctuating Hydrodynamics Approach for the Simulation of Nanoparticle Brownian Motion in a Newtonian Fluid

Abstract

The Brownian motion of a nanoparticle in an incompressible Newtonian fluid (quiescent or fully developed Poiseuille flow) has been investigated with an arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian based finite element method. Results for the motion in a compressible fluid medium are estimated. Thermal fluctuations from the fluid are implemented using a fluctuating hydrodynamics approach. The instantaneous flow around the particle and the particle motion are fully resolved. Carriers of two different sizes with three different densities have been investigated (nearly neutrally buoyant). The numerical results show that (a) the calculated temperature of the nearly neutrally buoyant Brownian particle in a quiescent fluid satisfies the equipartition theorem; (b) the translational and rotational decay of the velocity autocorrelation functions result in algebraic tails, over long time; (c) the translational and rotational mean square displacements of the particle obeys Stokes-Einstein and Stokes-Einstein-Debye relations, respectively. Larger the particle, longer the time taken to attain this limit; and (d) the parallel and perpendicular diffusivities of the particle closer to the wall are consistent with the analytical results, where available.