Dissipative Particle Dynamics

Abstract

In order to simulate a complex fluid like a polymeric or colloidal fluid, a molecular dynamics simulation is not very useful. The long time and space scales involved in the mesoscopic dynamics of large macromolecules or colloidal particles as compared with molecular scales imply to follow an exceedingly large number of molecules during exceedingly large times. On the other hand, at these long scales, molecular details only show up in a rather coarse form, and the question arises if it is possible to deal with coarse-grained entities that reproduce the mesoscopic dynamics correctly. Dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) is a fruitful modeling attempt in that direction.