Fluctuating Immersed Material (FIMAT) Dynamics for Fully Resolved Simulation of the Brownian Motion of Particles

Abstract

Fluctuating hydrodynamics based techniques have been developed in recent years for the simulation of Brownian motion of particles. These mesoscale simulation tools are viable approaches for problems where molecular dynamics simulations may be deemed expensive. We have developed a rigid constraint-based formulation where the key idea is to assume that the entire domain is a fluctuating fluid. Rigid motion constraints are then imposed in regions that are occupied by rigid particles. The resulting solution gives the Brownian motion of the particles. This approach is shown to be viable for the simulation of long time scale diffusive behavior as well as for short time scale dynamics by using two separate solution techniques. Test cases are reported to validate the approach and to establish its efficacy.