This award will support a research collaboration between Professor John Kincaid of SUNY-Stonybrook, Prof. E.G.D. Cohen of Rockefeller University, and Prof. Mariano Lopez de Haro of the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM). The investigators intend to study transport properties of fluids and fluid mixtures. The work will focus on methods to predict transport coefficients based on the revised Enskog theory, will develop a fundamentally new kinetic equation for dense fluids, and will investigate mass transport through porous media using the kinetic theory of lattice gases. This collaboration will bring together experienced col- laborators with productive backgrounds in physical chemistry, theoretical physics, and engineering. The work, while primarily theoretical, will involve numerical simulation of lattice gas models to be performed in Mexico. The motivation for pursuing investigations in these areas is, in large part, due to the important role that transport properties play in current energy technologies, in particular, chemical process technologies, heat engine design, and especially petroleum technologies.
