Molecular dynamics simulations were performed at 6543 and 3310K to investigate how the viscosity and self-diffusion coefficient scale with system size in the liquid BKS silica system. It was found that at high temperature the finite-size effect on shear viscosity was negligible. However, the size effect upon the diffusion coefficient still existed and scaled linearly with 1/N1/3, where N was the total number of particles in the system. At low temperatures, the size effect upon the viscosity became stronger than that up diffusion, and the logarithm of the viscosity and the diffusion coefficient scaled linearly with 1/N. The results were consistent with previous theoretical developments, and demonstrated that the finite-size effect should be considered in both high- and low-temperature molecular dynamics simulations of liquid silica.

Finite-Size Effect at Both High and Low Temperatures in Molecular Dynamics Calculations of the Self-Diffusion Coefficient and Viscosity of Liquid Silica. Y.Zhang, G.Guo, K.Refson, Y.Zhao: Journal of Physics - Condensed Matter, 2004, 16[50], 9127-35