Molecular dynamics simulation of nanofluid's flow behaviors in the near- wall model and main flow model

CZ Hu and ML Bai and JZ Lv and P Wang and L Zhang and XJ Li, MICROFLUIDICS AND NANOFLUIDICS, 17, 581-589 (2014).

DOI: 10.1007/s10404-013-1323-5

The flow behaviors of nanofluids were studied in this paper using molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. Two MD simulation systems that are the near-wall model and main flow model were built. The nanofluid model consisted of one copper nanoparticle and liquid argon as base liquid. For the near-wall model, the nanoparticle that was very close to the wall would not move with the main flowing due to the overlap between the solid-like layer near the wall and the adsorbed layer around the nanoparticle, but it still had rotational motion. When the nanoparticle is far away from the wall (d > 11 ), the nanoparticle not only had rotational motion, but also had translation. In the main flow model, the nanoparticle would rotate and translate besides main flowing. There was slip velocity between nanoparticles and liquid argon in both of the two simulation models. The flow behaviors of nanofluids exhibited obviously characteristics of two-phase flow. Because of the irregular motions of nanoparticles and the slip velocity between the two phases, the velocity fluctuation in nanofluids was enhanced.

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