International Journal of Thermophysicx, Vol. 20, No. 3. 1999
Transport Properties of Inhomogeneous
Fluid Mixtures1
L. A. Pozhar2 and K. E. Gubbins3,4
Explicit expressions for the transport coefficients of mixtures of dense, strongly
inhomogeneous fluids are derived in terms of the equilibrium structure factors
of such mixtures, in the framework of the nonequilibrium statistical mechanical
theory suggested by the authors. Particular attention is paid to the diffusion
coefficients of multicomponent inhomogeneous fluids. The case of binary diffu-
sion in inhomogeneous fluids is considered in detail.
1. INTRODUCTION
The thermodynamic properties of dense, strongly inhomogeneous fluids
(both gases and liquids), such as those at interfaces or confined in narrow
capillary pores of several molecular diameters in width, differ markedly
from their counterparts for homogeneous (bulk) fluids. Such fluids and
their mixtures (below called nanofluids or nanofluid mixtures) show new
and modified phase transitions and transport properties, highly selective
adsorption, spatially dependent structure properties, etc. Experimental
investigation of thermodynamic properties of nanofluids and their mixtures
is difficult, because of the complicated structure of the confined systems and
1 Paper presented at the Thirteenth Symposium on Thermophysical Properties, June 22-27,
1997, Boulder, Colorado, U.S.A.
2 Institute for Electromagnetic Research, 5 Pravda Avenue, Kharkov 310022, Ukraine.
3 School of Chemical Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, 14850, U.S.A.
4 To whom correspondence should be addressed at Department of Chemical Engineering,
North Carolina State University, 113 Riddick Labs, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695-7905,
U.S.A.
KEY WORDS: diffusion coefficients; fluids; inhomogeneous fluid mixtures;
nonequilibrium statistical mechanics; transport coefficients; transport theory.
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0195-928X/99/0500-0805J16.00/0 © 1999 Plenum Publishing Corporation