Molecular dynamics simulation study of rheological properties of CuO–water nanofluid

Abstract

Nanoparticle (NP) dispersion in engineering fluids holds significant characteristics that impact the quality and performance of liquid fluidic systems, like in biomedical fluids, contaminated water system, heat and energy transfer applications. This paper investigates the dispersal dynamics of metal oxide NPs in the aqueous fluid using large-scale Atomic/Molecular Parallel Simulator by applying CuO NPs as a targeting material with water (H2O). Two major parameters were chosen for evaluating the actual system in the simulation: (a) Discrete particle dynamics (DPD) and (b) Charged optimized many body (COMB) potential. In comparison to the experimental results, the current molecular dynamics (MD) simulation results show good correlations with the actual MD viscosity as 2.44 mPas at 313 K. The outcomes of this study were compared with the reference study of Loya et al., i.e. CuO–water nanofluid dispersion using DPD and smoothed particle hydrodynamics that demonstrated a marginal variation between both studies.