Simulation of Thermal Conductivity of Nanofluids Using Dissipative Particle Dynamics

Abstract

The effective thermal conductivity of Al₂O₃/water and CuO/water nanofluids were modeled by numerically solving steady heat flow in one-dimensional microchannels. This was accomplished by using energy conserving dissipative particle dynamics (DPDe).The effects of the interfacial thermal resistance and the Brownian motion of nanoparticles were incorporated in the model by modifying the conductive interaction parameter in the energy equation. The results were presented in the form of the thermal conductivity of nanofluids as functions of particle volume fraction and temperature, and were compared with the available experimental and analytical results. The present model agreed well with the experimental results for Al₂O₃/water nanofluid, whilethere were discrepancies between the model and the results for CuO/water nanofluid.

Acknowledgments

This work is supported by the National Science Foundation grant (NSF-OISE-0530203).