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Nanoparticle-tuned spreading behavior of nanofluid droplets on the solid substrate

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Abstract

Nanofluids, which are the term for suspensions of nanometer-sized structures, have recently been extensively used in a rapid increasing number of applications. In this work, spreading behaviors of water-based nanofluid droplets were investigated via molecular dynamics simulation. Influencing factors such as nanoparticle volume fraction and surface wettability were discussed in details on the atomic scale. Our simulation results demonstrated that the dynamics spreading of nanofluids can be effectively regulated by adjusting these factors. Based on the scaling law \(R(t) \propto t^{1/n} ,\) we proposed a competitive mechanism analysis among surface tension, viscous force and disjoining pressure, which describes the power relationship between contact radius R and spreading time t. These findings indicate that the nanoparticle-tuned spreading behavior of nanofluid droplets can be extensively used for diverse applications.

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Acknowledgments

This work was jointly supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, Anhui Provincial Natural Science Foundation and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CAS Key Laboratory of Materials Behavior and Design of Materials, Department of Modern Mechanics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230027, Anhui, China

    YingQi Li, FengChao Wang, He Liu & HengAn Wu

  2. PetroChina Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development, Beijing, 100083, China

    He Liu

Authors
  1. YingQi Li
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  2. FengChao Wang
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  3. He Liu
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  4. HengAn Wu
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Correspondence to FengChao Wang or HengAn Wu.

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Li, Y., Wang, F., Liu, H. et al. Nanoparticle-tuned spreading behavior of nanofluid droplets on the solid substrate. Microfluid Nanofluid 18, 111–120 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-014-1422-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10404-014-1422-y

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