A Molecular Dynamics Study on Effects of Nanostructural Clearances at an Interface on Thermal Resistance

The classical molecular dynamics simulation was conducted in order to clarify the effects of structural clearances in nanometer scale on thermal resistance at a liquid-solid interface. A liquid molecular region confined between the solid walls, of which the interparticle potential was Lennard-Jones type, was employed as a calculation system. The solid walls consisted of three atomic layers where the temperature of the middle layer was controlled by the Langevin method. Heat flux in the system was calculated numerically by integrating the forces that acted on the temperature controlled atoms by the Langevin method. The temperature jump between the solid wall and the liquid molecular region was calculated numerically. The thermal resistance at a liquid-solid interface was calculated numerically with changing the surface structural clearances in nanometer scale. Temperature gradient and liquid density were also changed as calculation parameters. With changing the surface structural clearances from 0nm to 2.5nm the thermal resistance at the interface once decreased and became the minimum value when the structural clearances were between 0.6 to 1.0 nm. The thermal resistance between the solid and the liquid increased when the structural clearances were more than 1.0nm. With the increase of the liquid density the thermal resistance between the solid and the liquid substantially decreased regardless of the temperature gradient and the surface structures in nanometer scale.