Prediction of Thermal Conductivity of Liquid Methane/Ethane-Cu Nanofluids via Molecular Dynamics Simulations

Conference Name: Nanotech Conference and Expo
Location: Boston, MA
Date: 06/2011

List of Authors:

Hasan Babaei , Jay M. Khodadadi

Abstract

The improvement of thermal conductivity by suspending nanoparticles in two hydrocarbon-based nanofluids is investigated by means of molecular dynamics simulations. Base fluids are methane and ethane and nanoparticles are pure copper. Two temperatures for which the experimental values for the thermal conductivity of the pure fluid exist are chosen. The Green-Kubo relation is utilized to calculate the thermal conductivity of colliodal systems. The effect of mass fraction of nanoparticles is investigated for each nanofluid at each temperature.