Molecular dynamics study of kinetic boundary condition at an interface between argon vapor and its condensed phase

Abstract

The evaporation and condensation at an interface of vapor and its condensed phase is considered. The validity of kinetic boundary condition for the Boltzmann equation, which prescribes the velocity distribution function of molecules outgoing from the interface, is investigated by the numerical method of molecular dynamics for argon. From the simulations of evaporation into vacuum, the spontaneous-evaporation flux determined by the temperature of condensed phase is discovered. Condensation coefficient in equilibrium states can then be determined without any ambiguity. It is found that the condensation coefficient is close to unity below the triple-point temperature and decreases gradually as the temperature rises. The velocity distribution of spontaneously evaporating molecules is found to be nearly a half-Maxwellian at a low temperature. This fact supports the kinetic boundary condition widely used so far. At high temperatures, on the other hand, the velocity distribution deviates from the half-Maxwellian. © 2004 American Institute of Physics.