D. Reguera, J. M. Rubi
Published 2003-09-08Version 1
We investigate the influence of a shear flow on the process of nucleation. Mesoscopic nonequilibrium thermodynamics is used to derive the Fokker-Planck equation governing the evolution of the cluster size distribution in a metastable phase subjected to a stationary flow. The presence of the flow manifests itself in the expression for the effective diffusion coefficient of a cluster and introduces modifications in the nucleation rate. The implications of these results in condensation and polymer crystallization are discussed.
Comments: 10 pages, accepted for publication in J. Chem. Phys
Homogeneous Nucleation in Inhomogeneous Media I: Nucleation in a Temperature Gradient
Scaling theory for the free-energy barrier to homogeneous nucleation of a non-critical phase near a critical point
Hydrodynamic correlations in shear flow: A Multiparticle--Collision--Dynamics simulation study
