Molecular dynamics of nanofluids with time-dependent thermal conductivity in heat sink dissipation

Since the pioneering work by Tuckerman & Pease, lots of publications about heat sink have been researched in the last decade. Many enhancements are suggested in order to increase the critical heat current of heat sink including nanofluids which are solid-liquid mixtures composed of nanoparticles and basic liquid. The values of the thermal properties of nanofluids are enhanced to a large degree, even when the concentration of the nanoparticles is non-ignorably small. Molecular dynamics (MD) method can be used to generate and accurately trace the trajectories of the simulated particles and the interaction of the nanoparticles with the base fluid. In this study, MD is used to simulate the thermal conductivity of nanofluids obtained from the non-equilibrium MD (NEMD) approach under different temperatures. And simulations are based on the commercial software package FLUENT and treating the nanofluids as a two-phase mixture. Thermal resistance of four different coolants with different inlet velocities and heating powers are computed. Results show temperature-dependent thermal conductivity can´t be neglected while simulating especially when the inlet velocity is large and the heating power is low.