Effect of Temperature on Rheology and Nanoparticle Movements of Water Based Nanofluids by Molecular Dynamics Simulation

Employing nanofluids is an innovative way to enhance heat transfer in cooling system of internal combustion engine. the reasons for the significantly enhanced heat transfer properties of nanofluids are various. On one hand, the markedly increased thermal conductivity is the most apparent reason; on the other hand, the changed rheology properties of base fluid due to the disordered movements of countless nanoparticles is even more important. Because the size scale of nanoparticles is too small, in some cases of computational simulations nanofluids is simplified as single-phase fluids. However, the influence of nanoparticles for flow behaviors of base fluids distinctly should not be ignored. By means of molecular dynamics method, a nano-scale simulation on the rheology of nanofluids could be conducted, therefore the movements of nanoparticles could be directly observed, which is conducive to reveal the influence of movements of nanoparticles for rheology of nanofluids. The present work is intended to perform a molecular dynamic simulation on the rheology of water based nanofluids. By applying temperature difference, the velocity and temperature distribution of fluid zone are calculated to evaluate heat transfer through nanofluids. Moreover, the influence of temperature for the movements of nanoparticle is discussed.