Modeling And Simulation Of Nanofluid For Heat Storage
Abstract
This work models the dynamic behavior of molten nitrate salt mixture to investigate the formation of interfacial nanostructures in ionic liquid nano-fluids which is responsible for increase of heat capacity of the mixture. A key application of these fluids is in heat storage in solar collector where the heat capacity determines the amount of energy storage and therefore the efficiency of a solar collector system. The heat capacity can be significantly increased by the addition of a small amount of nanoparticles, of radius 1 to 100 nanometers in a concentration of approximately 1 by weight. This increase appears to be caused by the formation of nanostructures in the fluid, initiated by the addition of nanoparticles, is observed by other researchers. This work is aimed at developing a multi-scale analysis to formulate a simulation that facilitates investigation of the physical phenomena behind nanostructure formation.