Prediction of shear viscosities using periodic perturbation method and OPLS force field

Abstract The periodic perturbation method is applied to predict shear viscosities of liquid 1,4-butanediol, 1,3-butanediol, 1,2-butanediol, 2-methyl-1,3-propanediol and 1,2,4-butanetriol under two thermodynamical conditions: T  = 373 K, P  = 0.1 MPa and T  = 373 K, P  = 250 MPa. A linear dependence of the calculated shear viscosities with respect to the applied perturbation forces is identified. Based on this finding, extrapolation of the calculated viscosities to zero perturbation force is applied to estimate the shear viscosities for the “undisturbed” fluids. The uncertainties of the estimates are calculated using the block average method. The predicted values compare favorably with the experimental data. Although the force field is optimized using equilibrium properties (liquid densities and vaporization enthalpies), calculated results demonstrate that the force field can be used to predict the kinetic properties accurately. The force field parameters are well transferable among different state points. However, transferring parameters among different molecules should be executed with caution.