Many-body dissipative particle dynamics is constructed to exhibit vapor-liquid coexistence, with a sharp interface, and a vapor phase of vanishingly small density. The application to fluid mechanics problems involving free surfaces is illustrated by simulation of a pendant drop. The model is an unusual example of a soft-sphere liquid with a potential energy built out of local-density-dependent one-particle self-energies.

• Received 4 June 2003

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.68.066702