Molecular simulation of thermal conductivity of rarefied gas nanosuspensions

Abstract

The thermal conductivity coefficient of rarefied gas nanosuspensions is modelled using kinetic theory and stochastic molecular modelling (SMM) method. Gas nanosuspensions based on rarefied argon with spherical zinc nanoparticles with diameters of 5, 10 and 20 nm at temperature of 300 K and atmospheric pressure are considered. The interactions of carrier gas molecules, a carrier gas molecule with a nanoparticle, and nanoparticles between themselves are described using Lennard-Jones, Rudyak–Krasnolutskii (RK) and Rudyak–Krasnolutskii–Ivanov (RKI) potentials respectively. It is shown that the thermal conductivity of the Ar-Zn gas nanosuspensions is lower than one of pure argon and decreases with an increase in the volume concentration of nanoparticles and a decrease in their size. In particular, the thermal conductivity of a gas nanosuspension with particles with a diameter of 5 nm at their volume concentration 0.001 drops by 8.2% compared to pure argon. The results obtained using both methods are consistent well.