The bulk phase behavior of a fluid is typically altered when the fluid is brought into confinement by the walls of a random porous medium. Inside the porous medium, phase-transition points are shifted, or may disappear altogether. A crucial determinant is how the walls interact with the fluid particles. In this work, we consider the situation whereby the walls are neutral with respect to the liquid and vapor phases. In order to realize the condition of strict neutrality, we use a symmetric binary mixture inside a porous medium that interacts identically with mixture species. Monte Carlo simulations are then used to obtain the phase behavior. Our main finding is that, in the presence of the porous medium, a liquid-vapor critical point still exists. At the critical point, the distribution of the order parameter remains scale invariant, but self-averaging is violated. These findings provide further evidence that random confinement by neutral walls induces critical behavior of the random Ising model (i.e., Ising models with dilution type disorder, where the disorder couples to the energy).

Fluids in porous media: The case of neutral walls

PELLICANE, Giuseppe;GIAQUINTA, Paolo Vittorio
2013-01-01

Abstract

The bulk phase behavior of a fluid is typically altered when the fluid is brought into confinement by the walls of a random porous medium. Inside the porous medium, phase-transition points are shifted, or may disappear altogether. A crucial determinant is how the walls interact with the fluid particles. In this work, we consider the situation whereby the walls are neutral with respect to the liquid and vapor phases. In order to realize the condition of strict neutrality, we use a symmetric binary mixture inside a porous medium that interacts identically with mixture species. Monte Carlo simulations are then used to obtain the phase behavior. Our main finding is that, in the presence of the porous medium, a liquid-vapor critical point still exists. At the critical point, the distribution of the order parameter remains scale invariant, but self-averaging is violated. These findings provide further evidence that random confinement by neutral walls induces critical behavior of the random Ising model (i.e., Ising models with dilution type disorder, where the disorder couples to the energy).
2013
File in questo prodotto:
Non ci sono file associati a questo prodotto.
Pubblicazioni consigliate

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11570/2604568
 Attenzione

Attenzione! I dati visualizzati non sono stati sottoposti a validazione da parte dell'ateneo

Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus 7
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 7
social impact