Investigating the wall effect on convective heat transfer in a nanochannel by molecular dynamics simulation

Abstract

In this paper, convective heat transfer of argon in a nanochannel is investigated by molecular dynamics method. Simulations are performed by LAMMPS code and the effects of wall material, wall roughness and nanochannel size on Nusselt number are studied. To study the wall material effects on convective heat transfer, argon, copper and platinum walls are considered. Results show that convective heat transfer is affected by the wall material and the Nusselt number in the nanochannel with copper walls is higher than the other materials. Also, results illustrate that by increasing the nanochannel size, the Nusselt number increases. Finally, the presence of roughness increases the velocity and Nusselt number in the nanochannel.