Effect of container shape and walls on solidification of Brownian particles in a narrow system

We carry out Brownian dynamics simulations and study the ordering of particles under a uniform external force in a narrow system. In our previous studies [M. Sato, Phys. Rev. E 87, 032403 (2013)PLEEE81539-375510.1103/PhysRevE. 87.032403; J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 82, 084804 (2013)JUPSAU0031-901510.7566/JPSJ.82. 084804], we showed that the ordering of particles depends on the direction of the external force. In the studies, however, the system size and the number of particles are small, so the behaviors we observed corresponds to the motions in the initial stage of crystallization. In this paper, using a longer container and more particles, we investigate how solidification in a narrow system proceeds. We also study the effect of the shape of simulation box on the ordering of particles. When we use a rhomboid as a simulation box, the ratio of the particles with the face-centered cubic structure to those with the hexagonal close-packed structure is larger than that in a cuboid system. © 2014 American Physical Society