Supercooled Liquids under Shear: Computational Approach

Abstract. We examine the microscopic dynamics of supercooled liquids under shear by performing extensive molecular dynamics simulations of a two-dimensional binary liquid with soft-core interactions near, but above, the glass transition tem-perature. Our simulations show that a drastic reduction of the structural relaxation time and the shear viscosity occurs due to shear. The structural relaxation time de-creases as γ̇−ν with an exponent ν ≤ 1, where γ ̇ is the shear rate. The microscopic dynamics were confirmed to be surprisingly isotropic regardless of the strength of the anisotropic shear flow.