The surface shear viscosity of a planar liquid-vapor interface I. Theory

In this paper we develop a theory for the calculation of the surface shear viscosity of a planar liquid-vapor interface. The theory is an extension of the generalized hydrodynamics formalism, originally developed for the calculation of linear transport coefficients in isotropic bulk fluids. We develop an expression for the surface shear viscosity in terms of the actual shear viscosity profile in the interfacial region. We derive an expression for this profile in terms of the first four moments of the autocorrelation function of the transverse parallel velocity (the component of velocity parallel to k∥, which is the projection of k on to the interface). Finally, we calculate these moments for a planar liquid-vapor interface.