A Molecular Dynamics Study on the Effects of Nanostructural Clearances on Thermal Resistance at a Liquid-Solid Interface

Abstract

The effects of the surface structures and the surface structural clearances at the nanometer scale on the thermal resistance at a liquid water-solid interface, as well as the self-diffusion behaviors of liquid molecules, were investigated directly by the non-equilibrium classical molecular dynamics simulations. When the potential parameter between liquid molecules and nanostructure atoms is equal to that between liquid molecules and solid wall atoms, the geometric surface area change depending on the nanostructures as well as their clearances and the self-diffusion coefficient change of the liquid molecules at the interface depending on the nanostructural clearances cause the thermal resistance change depending on the nanostructures at the liquid-solid interface. When the potential parameter between liquid molecules and nanostructure atoms is different from that between liquid molecules and solid wall atoms, the interfacial thermal resistance is dependent on the potential parameter between liquid molecules and nanostructure atoms itself rather than the geometric surface area in a molecular scale.