Scaling Navier-Stokes equation in nanotubes

On one hand, classical Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics simulations have been very useful in the study of liquids in nanotubes, enabling a wide variety of properties to be calculated in intuitive agreement with experiments. On the other hand, recent studies indicate that the theory of continuum breaks down only at the nanometer level; consequently flows through nanotubes still can be investigated with Navier-Stokes equations if we take suitable boundary conditions into account. The aim of this paper is to study the statics and dynamics of liquids in nanotubes by using methods of nonlinear continuum mechanics. We assume that the nanotube is filled with only a liquid phase; by using a second gradient theory the static profile of the liquid density in the tube is analytically obtained and compared with the profile issued from molecular dynamics simulation. Inside the tube there are two domains: a thin layer near the solid wall where the liquid density is non-uniform and a central core where the liquid density is uniform. In the dynamic case a closed form analytic solution seems to be no more possible, but by a scaling argument it is shown that, in the tube, two distinct domains connected at their frontiers still exist. The thin inhomogeneous layer near the solid wall can be interpreted in relation with the Navier length when the liquid slips on the boundary as it is expected by experiments and molecular dynamics calculations. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.