Molecular dynamics simulation of the evaporation of thin liquid sodium film on the conical nanostructure surface

ZT Wang and TZ Ye and KL Guo and CL Wang and WX Tian and SZ Qiu and GH Su, PROGRESS IN NUCLEAR ENERGY, 162, 104795 (2023).

DOI: 10.1016/j.pnucene.2023.104795

Deeply understanding the evaporation of the nanoscale thin liquid film on the nanostructure substrates is significant for further constructing the novel wick structure with nanostructure surfaces, which would be used in the optimal design of the sodium heat pipe. For this purpose, this paper investigates the evaporation of thin liquid film on conical nanostructured surfaces by the molecular dynamics method. A cuboid evaporation system is constructed. It consists of the bottom solid substrate and thin liquid sodium film. A flat solid wall is set as the reference. By changing the nanoscale cone's number and height, five conical nanostructure surfaces are built. The number of gas atoms and the total energy of fluid atoms are observed respectively. The evaporation rate and the average heat flux (q) of six cases are compared. The conical nanostructure suppresses evaporation. With the roughness of the conical nanostructures, the evaporation rate decrement maximum can reach 83% and the q decrement maximum can reach 58%. Based on the thermal resistances in the solid-liquid contact region, the D (Self-diffusion coefficient), and the peak values of RDF (Radial distribution function), the mechanisms of the conical nanostructure surfaces are analyzed. The suppressing effects of the conical nanostructure surfaces are achieved by weakening the heat conduction in the solid-liquid contact region and mitigating the collision heat transfer of liquid atoms.

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