Molecular dynamics study of the rheology of benzene-based nanofluids with metal particles

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to study the rheology of the nanofluids with ordinary spherical particles. The rheology of benzene and benzene-based nanofluids with copper and aluminium particles of 3 and 6 nm diameter been studied by the nonequilibrium molecular dynamics method. The maximum volume concentration of the nanoparticles was 6.11 %. It has been shown that all fluids considered, including benzene and benzene-based nanofluids, exhibit Newtonian behavior at low shear rates. However, with increasing shear rate, both benzene and nanofluids become pseudoplastic. The mechanisms of the rheology change of simple liquid and nanofluids have studied. This change in their rheology is a threshold phenomenon, in which the critical shear rate depends on the concentration, size, and material of the nanoparticles. The critical shear rate increases with increasing particle size and decreases with increasing particle concentration. Correlations describing the critical shear rates at which the rheology of nanofluids changes are obtained. It is shown that the rheology change is due to a change in the structure of both the base fluid and the nanofluid. In all cases, the change in rheology results from the weakening of the short-range order in these fluids. As the shear rate increases, the difference between viscosity of the base fluid and all studied nanofluids decreases monotonically.