MOLECULAR DYNAMICS BASED ANALYSIS OF NUCLEATION AND SURFACE ENERGY OF DROPLETS IN SUPERSATURATED VAPORS OF METHANE AND ETHANE

摘要

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are applied for studying homogeneous nucleation during condensation of supersaturated vapors of methane and ethane. Nucleation processes are characterized by the nucleation rate, i.e. the number of stable droplets produced per volume and time. Nucleation rates from simulations are compared to the classical nucleation theory (CNT) and a model that introduces a size dependence of the specific surface energy. CNT is found to agree well with the simulation results, deviations are throughout lower than three orders of magnitude.