How Does Heat Propagate in Liquids?

Abstract

In this paper, we proceed to illustrate the consequences and implications of the Dual Model of Liquids (DML) by applying it to the heat propagation. Within the frame of the DML, propagation of thermal (elastic) energy in liquids is due to wave-packet propagation and to the wave-packets’ interaction with the material particles of the liquid, meant in the DML as aggregates of molecules swimming in an ocean of amorphous liquid. The liquid particles interact with the lattice particles, a population of elastic wave-packets, by means of an inertial force, exchanging energy and momentum with them. The hit particle relaxes at the end of the interaction, releasing the energy and momentum back to the system a step forward and a time lapse later, like in a tunnel effect. The tunnel effect and the duality of liquids are the new elements that suggest on a physical basis for the first time, using a hyperbolic equation to describe the propagation of energy associated to the dynamics of wave-packet interaction with liquid particles. Although quantitatively relevant only in the transient phase, the additional term characterizing the hyperbolic equation, usually named the “memory term”, is physically present also once the stationary state is attained; it is responsible for dissipation in liquids and provides a finite propagation velocity for wave-packet avalanches responsible in the DML for the heat conduction. The consequences of this physical interpretation of the “memory” term added to the Fourier law for the phononic contribution are discussed and compiled with numerical prediction for the value of the memory term and with the conclusions of other works on the same topic.