Kikugawa Group, Institute of Fluid Science, Tohoku University

Molecular Composite Flow Laboratory

Transport Phenomena in Heterogeneous Media and Confined Liquids

気液界面をミクロスケールで観測すると,分子の熱揺らぎによって,界面がダイナミックに運動していることがわかる.この分子スケールの揺らぎを捉えられる統計力学的な界面定義方法を提案し,その分子シミュレーション結果を可視化した.

局所・瞬時的界面の定義による気液界面の3D可視化動画(平行法で立体視できる)

At the fluid and soft matter interfaces or inside the confined liquid in nanoscale structures, peculiar heat and mass transfer characteristics emerges as a consequence of heterogeneous structure formation inside a liquid in the vicinity of the interfaces. These phenomena are directly relevant to the wide field of nano- and bioengineering, e.g., molecular transport through mesoporous materials and biomolecules. This study elucidates that the molecular transport in confined liquids is significantly different from that in the homogenous bulk liquids and that the molecular diffusion is highly affected by the hydrodynamic effect induced by the molecule itself. Our goal is an essential understanding of heterogeneous structure and corresponding transport phenomena at the molecular level and building of physical models which can bridge macroscopic thermal and fluid analyses based on the microscopic knowledge.

Related publications

  • Hari Krishna Chilukoti, Gota Kikugawa, and Taku Ohara, Structure and Mass Transport Characteristics at the Intrinsic Liquid-Vapor Interfaces of Alkanes, Journal of Physical Chemistry B, Vol. 120 (2016), pp 7207–7216. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.6b05332
  • Gota Kikugawa, Takeo Nakano, and Taku Ohara, Hydrodynamic consideration of the finite size effect on the self-diffusion coefficient in a periodic rectangular parallelepiped system, Journal of Chemical Physics,  Vol. 143 (2015), 024507. doi:10.1063/1.4926841
  • Gota Kikugawa, Shotaro Ando, Jo Suzuki, Yoichi Naruke, Takeo Nakano, and Taku Ohara, Effect of the computational domain size and shape on the self-diffusion coefficient in a Lennard-Jones liquid, Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol. 142 (2015), 024503. doi:10.1063/1.4905545
  • Gota Kikugawa, Shu Takagi, Yoichiro Matsumoto, Taku Ohara, A molecular dynamics study on local structure of liquid-vapor interface of water and L-J fluid, Journal of Thermal Science and Technology, Vol.3 (2008), pp. 234-240. doi:10.1299/jtst.3.234
  • Gota Kikugawa, Shu Takagi and Yoichiro Matsumoto, A molecular dynamics study on liquid-vapor interface absorbed by impurities, Computers and Fluids, Vol.36 (2007), pp. 69-76. doi:10.1016/j.compfluid.2005.07.007
  • 菊川豪太, 高木周, 松本洋一郎, ミクロスケールにおける気液界面の局所・瞬時的定義について, 日本機械学会論文集B, 73巻, 第725 (2007), pp.118-125, (in Japanese). doi:10.1299/kikaib.73.118