Nanofluidic applications of hybrid molecular continuum methods

Over the past decade Micro and Nanofluidics emerged as vital tools in the ongoing drive towards the development of nano-scale analysis and manufacturing systems. Accurate numerical modelling of the phenomena involved at these scales is essential in order to speed up the industrial design process for nanotechnology. The key challenge of the numerical modelling of micro and nanofluidics is associated with inherently multiscale nature of the problem. In this paper a state-of-the-art overview of hybrid molecular- continuum simulation methods for the simulation of nanoscale flows is presented. Two major approaches are discussed: geometrical decomposition and point wise coupling. The aforementioned approaches are applied to fundamental test cases including slip Couette flows, Poiseuille flows of polymeric fluids and free flows around carbon nanotubes.