(574c) Heat Transfer Characteristics of a Nanofluid within a Heated Lid-Driven Cavity Using Multiscale Modeling Techniques

new geothermal energy resources and significant interest has been

expressed recently to enhance their overall heat transfer characteristics

with the addition of nanoparticle suspensions. This present work uses a

coupled computational fluid dynamics/molecular dynamics framework to

characterize the unique spatially dependent thermal conductivity that

occurs within a fluid that contains various concentrations of suspended

nanoparticle. The characterization of this 'nanofluid' is performed within

the well-established heated lid-driven cavity problem and compared with

published computational results of a homogeneous fluid with an isotropic

thermal conductivity. The macroscopic fluid dynamics of the system is

modeled using the staggered grid finite difference method to describe the

incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. The thermal conductivity is

calculated at the nanoscale using non-equilibrium molecular dynamics

simulations at four locations within the cavity. Nanoscale/macroscale

coupling techniques that account for the variability in both heat transfer

characteristics and the thermal conductivity of the nanofluid due to

temperature and nanoparticle concentration is outlined.