Shear viscosity of a simple fluid over a wide range of strain rates

The shear viscosity of the Weeks—Chandler—Andersen (WCA) fluid at the Lennard-Jones triple point has been calculated over a wide range of strain rates using the transient time correlation function (TTCF) formalism. It has been demonstrated that these calculations can be carried out at arbitrarily low strain rates with the precision of the Green—Kubo calculations. At high strain rates, the calculated data agree within the error bars with more precise data acquired using the computationally less demanding steady state (SS) non-equilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD) method. The linear variation of viscosity with the square root of the strain rate is discussed.