Study of Self Diffusion of Nanoparticle Using Dissipative Particle Dynamics

Jian Hong Tan; Toru Yamada; Yutaka Asako; Lit Ken Tan; Nor Azwadi Che Sidik

Authors

Jian Hong Tan Department of Mechanical Precision Engineering, Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology, University Technology Malaysia, Jalan Sultan Yahya Petra, Kuala Lumpur, 54100, Malaysia
Toru Yamada Nagoya Institute of Technology, Gokisocho, Showa-ku, Nagoya 466-8555, Japan
Yutaka Asako Department of Mechanical Precision Engineering, Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology, University Technology Malaysia, Jalan Sultan Yahya Petra, Kuala Lumpur, 54100, Malaysia
Lit Ken Tan Department of Mechanical Precision Engineering, Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology, University Technology Malaysia, Jalan Sultan Yahya Petra, Kuala Lumpur, 54100, Malaysia
Nor Azwadi Che Sidik Department of Mechanical Precision Engineering, Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology, University Technology Malaysia, Jalan Sultan Yahya Petra, Kuala Lumpur, 54100, Malaysia

Keywords:

DPD, Dissipative Particle Dynamics, Selfdiffusion, nanofluids, nanoparticle

Abstract

Nanofluids have been proven to exhibit enhanced thermal properties in heat transfer applications. To further improvise the thermal enhancement, it made sense to investigate the self-diffusion of the nanoparticles in the base fluid. However, the numerical study on the diffusivity of the nanoparticle is very limited. In this study, the diffusivity of nanoparticles with diameters of 17nm and 500nm was investigated numerically. Only the collision force between DPD and nanoparticles as well as drag force by the surrounding fluid is considered. The alternative expression of Boltzmann temperature proposed in the previous publication was applied to the current DPD (Dissipative Particle Dynamics) model for nanofluids. The volume concentration of the nanoparticles was fixed at 4% with water as the base fluid. Four test cases with different testing parameters were reported. The developed DPD model successfully captured the Brownian Motion of the nanoparticles. Other than that, the obtained diffusivity of the nanoparticles also agreed well with the past experimental results and Einstein’s correlation. The present study obtained a percentage difference of approximately 3% to 30% compared to both past experimental results and Einstein’s correlation. However, it is worth noting that a higher number of nanoparticles reduced the diffusivity of nanoparticles.