A Molecular Dynamics Study of Thermal Conductivity in Nanocomposites via the Phonon Wave Packet Method

The phonon wave packet technique is used in conjunction with the molecular dynamics simulations to directly observe phonon scattering at material interfaces. The phonon transmission coefficient of nanocomposites is examined as a function of the defect size, thin film thickness, orientation of interface to the heat flow direction. To generalize the results based on phonons in a narrow frequency range and at normal incidence, the effective thermal conductivity of the same nanocomposite structure is calculated using non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations for model nanocomposites formed by two mass-mismatched Ar-like solids and heterogeneous Si-SiCO₂ systems. The results are compared with the modified effective medium formulation for nanocomposites.