Heat transfer around copper nanoparticle with high superheat in water pool: A molecular dynamics simulation

Abstract

Rapid boiling of a liquid occurs when it is highly superheated near the thermodynamic critical temperature that is much higher than the saturation temperature. Many experimental investigation have been conducted to observe the rapid ejection phenomenon near the heated surface. However, these study were limited by either length or time scale because of the limitation of classical macroscopic theory. In this work, a molecular dynamics simulation of heat transfer from a nanoparticle to its surrounding liquid pool was carried out to study the effect of nanoparticle diameter on the heat transfer of water around it. The interactions among copper atoms were described by the Embedded Atom Method (EAM) potentials, and the TIP4P water model was used to model the water atoms. The results show that the temperature of water increases more quickly for nanoparticle with larger diameter, the heat flux increases apparently when the nanoparticle diameter increases, and the interfacial thermal resistance is relatively larger for bigger nanoparticle due to the vibrational mismatch present at the interface.