Computer ‘‘experiment’’ for nonlinear thermodynamics of Couette flow

Nonequilibrium computer simulations reveal that the equation of state of fluids undergoing shear flow, varies with strain rate. This observation prompted the development of a nonlinear generalization of irreversible thermodynamics to describe steady planar Couette flow, very far from equilibrium. In this paper we use computer simulation to perform a quantitative test of a prediction of this thermodynamics. The prediction tested is: fluids which exhibit positive shear dilatancy for isothermal shear flow should also cool as the strain rate is increased while keeping the internal energy constant. To perform calculations of this effect a new nonequilibrium molecular dynamics algorithm was developed to simulate Couette flow at constant internal energy.