Molten nitrate-based salts find potential use as a heat transfer fluid as well as thermal energy storage fluid in concentrating solar power plants primarily due to their relative inertness to construction materials and lower viscosities. It has been observed that ternary nitrate salt mixtures have lower melting points as compared to binary mixtures. One important property looked at during material selection is the thermal conductivity. Experimental determination of this property is laborious and the uncertainties are high. In this paper, the unit cell model proposed earlier by Zhao et al. has been extended to ternary systems. It is observed to have better prediction as compared to the linear mixing rule (additive rule) as well as the model proposed by Hossein et al. The thermal conductivity of calcium nitrate has also been predicted. This will help in modeling thermal conductivity of Ca(NO3)2-based ternary salts, which currently exhibit even lower melting points and viscosities as compared to its binary counterparts.

中文翻译：

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使用晶胞概念对三元硝酸熔盐的热导率建模

熔融硝酸盐基盐在聚光太阳能发电厂中作为传热流体和热能储存流体具有潜在用途，这主要是因为它们对建筑材料的相对惰性和较低的粘度。已经观察到，与二元混合物相比，三元硝酸盐混合物具有较低的熔点。在材料选择过程中考虑的一项重要特性是热导率。这种性质的实验确定是费力的，并且不确定性很高。在本文中，赵等人早先提出的晶胞模型。已扩展到三元系统。观察到与线性混合规则（加性规则）以及 Hossein 等人提出的模型相比具有更好的预测。硝酸钙的热导率也已被预测。