Molecular dynamics simulation of the effect of carbon nanotubes on liquid argon phase transition behavior on the platinum plate

Abstract

The effect of varying single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) volume fractions on the phase transition behavior exhibited by liquid argon was investigated in this study. The thermodynamic behavior of SWCNTs/Ar nanofluid was performed by molecular dynamics simulation realized through the LAMMPS computational package. Physical parameters (e.g., thermal conductivity, heat flow, total energy, fluid temperature, gas phase atomic number, and density) were examined to investigate the atomic characteristics exhibited by nanofluid with volume fractions of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) ranging from 0 vol% (pure liquid) to 2.28 vol%. As revealed by the result of the simulation analysis, the rate of temperature rise can be increased, and the transition period can be shortened through the incorporation of CNTs into the base fluid. When the CNTs volume fraction ranged from 0.57 vol% to 1.14 vol%, the thermal conductivity was enhanced by a maximum of 75 %, from 0.0507 W/mK for pure liquid argon to 0.089 W/mK for CNTs/Ar nanofluid. The thermal conductivity was reduced under CNTs volume fraction of over 1.71 vol%. Lastly, a conclusion was drawn in this study, i.e., introducing a proper proportion of CNTs into Ar fluid can lead to the effective improvement of the thermodynamic performance of the nanofluid.