Mesoscale hydrodynamics via stochastic rotation dynamics: Comparison with Lennard-Jones fluid

Stochastic rotation dynamics (SRD) is a relatively recent technique, closely related to lattice Boltzmann, for capturing hydrodynamic fluid flow at the mesoscale. The SRD method is based on simple constituent fluid particle interactions and dynamics. Here we parametrize the SRD fluid to provide a one to one match in the shear viscosity of a Lennard-Jones fluid and present viscosity measurements for a range of such parameters. We demonstrate how to apply the Müller-Plathe reverse perturbation method for determining the shear viscosity of the SRD fluid and discuss how finite system size and momentum exchange rates effect the measured viscosity. The implementation and performance of SRD in a parallel molecular dynamics code is also described. © 2010 American Institute of Physics.