Structural Origin of Shear Viscosity of Liquid Water.

The relation between the microscopic structure and shear viscosity of liquid water was analyzed by calculating the cross-correlation between the shear stress and the two-body density using the molecular dynamics simulation. The slow viscoelastic relaxation that dominates the steady-state shear viscosity was ascribed to the destruction of the hydrogen-bonding network structure along the compression axis of the shear distortion, which resembles the structural change under isotropic hydrostatic compression. It means that the shear viscosity of liquid water reflects the anisotropic destruction-formation dynamics of the hydrogen-bonding network.