PROPERTIES OF NANOFLUIDS

I am curently working on the modeling and understanding of nanofluids.

Nanofluids are colloidal suspensions, i.e. a fine dispersion of nano-sized solid particles in a liquid. Before the advent of nanotechnology the study of colloidal suspensions with micro-sized particles was quite common, but their size posed significant corrosion and erosion hazards in engineering applications. When the manufacture of nano-sized particles became possible, it was noticed that, unlike micron-sized particles, nano-suspensions can form stable systems with very little settling under static conditions. Recently-conducted experiments have indicated that nanofluids tend to have substantially higher coefficients of thermal conductivity than the base fluids. This is both surprising and significant, and is the reason why the study of the transport properties of nanofluids is important. The scientific literature on nanofluids is sporadic and full of discrepancies, and there is still no common agreement on the understanding of solvation effects in nanofluids.

The novelty of the present work is in a new, more fundamental and basic approach to the problem of understanding nanofluids. At the beginning, the geometry will be simplified, while the physics is constantly kept as realistic as possible. After reaching some qualitative and quantitative conclusions from a detailed molecular dynamics (MD) simulation, the challenge of a continuum coupling will be undertaken. POSSIBLE APPLICATIONS OF MY WORK There is a large number of applications that can benefit from a better understanding of nanofluids. The motivation behind this specific study is the possible use of modern green liquids for the suspension. One example is ionic liquids, which are salts that are liquid at room temperature. However, ionic liquids do not have a very high thermal conductivity, and if that could be improved by the addition of nano-particles, the liquid would be better suited for heat transfer applications such as in absorption refrigeration or cooling circuits. The low toxicity, long lifetime, and antimicrobial properties of such a coolant would make it suitable for use in spacecrafts, perhaps, to increase the efficiency, lower the weight, and reduce the complexity of space thermal control systems. In an extreme environment, such as space, where the thermal control system is exposed to low temperature environments, the enhancement of the thermal conductivity of low freezing point coolants would also improve the overall performance of the thermal control system itself. Liquid cooling with high thermal conductivity fluids would also address many other heat dissipation problems. For instance, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) generate large quantities of heat during operation and would require high performance coolants to mitigate the large heat flux. Such a system requires a precise temperature control, and a high conductive fluid in this case would allow for a more efficient heat transfer control.