Molecular dynamics simulation on effect of nanoparticle aggregation on transport properties of a nanofluid

Effect of nanoparticle aggregation on the transport properties that include thermal conductivity and viscosity of nanofluids is studied by molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. Unlike many other MD simulations on nanofluids which have only one nanoparticle in the simulation box with periodic boundary condition, in this work, multiple nanoparticles are placed in the simulation box which makes it possible to simulate the aggregation of the nanoparticles. Thermal conductivity and viscosity of the nanofluid are calculated using Green-Kubo method and results show that the nanoparticle aggregation induces a significant enhancement of thermal conductivity in nanofluid, while the increase of viscosity is moderate. The results also indicate that different configurations of the nanoparticle cluster result in different enhancements of thermal conductivity and increase of viscosity in the nanofluid.