Thermophysical characteristics of ethylene glycol-based copper nanofluids using nonequilibrium and equilibrium methods

Enhancement of thermal conductivity for nanofluids has been demonstrated in numerous experiments and analysis. The present study calculates the thermal conductivity and reveals molecular-level mechanisms for copper nanoparticles suspended in ethylene glycol using molecular dynamic simulations. Computed thermal conductivities of the nanofluids using Green-Kubo formalism and using Nonequilibrium MD Methods are compared. Contributions for possible heat transfer modes in molecular level are quantized, including modes of convection and interaction using Green-Kubo formalism. The simulations not only confirm that the enhancement of thermal conductivity due to the suspending nanoparticle is increased with volume fraction and the size of the nanoparticle but also identify the significant contributions from atom interaction.© 2011 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.