WOLFRAM|DEMONSTRATIONS PROJECT

Heat Conduction in a 1D Harmonic Chain with 3D Vibrations

This Demonstration shows the propagation of an energy pulse in a 1D harmonic chain with 3D vibrations, to study the influence of the lattice constant
a
on heat conduction. Starting from a uniform initial temperature
T=0.2
and adding a pulse of energy to the central atom at position
i=101
, the snapshots of
<E(i)>
are the averages over 1000 observations taken at times
t=1,3,10,30,100
. A large lattice constant (
a=128
) behaves approximately as a 1D harmonic chain while a small lattice constant (
a=2
) brings out the influence of 3D vibrations. The contrast between the two cases depends on the magnitude of the lattice constant.