Prediction of viscosity of kerosene-based nanographene fluids by molecular dynamics simulation analysis

Abstract

Molecular dynamics simulation was used to study the viscosity of rocket kerosene with nanofluid. The substitution model of a four-component rocket kerosene-based fluid was constructed and verified by experiments. Nano-graphene GNPs were introduced to investigate the effects of volume fraction and particle parameters on the viscosity of rocket kerosene. The viscosity of the composite system increased from 5.12 % to 15.68 % when the volume fraction of graphene increased from 0.1 % to 0.9 % at 303 K. When the volume fraction of graphene nanoparticles is 0.1 %, the temperature increases from 223 K to 323 K, and the viscosity of the composite system decreases from 27.59 mPa·s to 1.10 mPa·s. The simulation results show that the viscosity of rocket kerosene with nanographene particles is significantly higher than that of rocket kerosene-based fluid. Increasing the volume fraction of nano-graphene sheets and decreasing the particle size makes the graphene molecules collide and diffuse more frequently in the rocket kerosene, which leads to the increase of the viscosity of the composite system. In addition, shape factors such as the specific surface area and aspect ratio of the nanoparticles affect the viscosity of the kerosene-based nanofluids.