Molten salts constitute one kind of PCMs (Phase Change Materials) widely used in concentrating solar power facilities for heat storage and heat transfer. This paper aims to simulate nanofluid PCMs with molecular dynamics method. Concretely, the thermophysical properties of a nanofluid of KNO3 doped with SiO2 nanoparticle are investigated by equilibrium and nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations. For the first time, these properties of a nanofluid in the family of PCMs are calculated. The density, thermal expansion coefficient, specific heat capacity, thermal conductivity, and viscosity are characterized as functions of the SiO2 nanoparticle concentration. The effect of the SiO2 nanoparticle size on the nanofluid’s properties is also investigated. The simulation results present an enhancement of the thermophysical properties, especially for the specific heat capacity, in good agreement with the existing experimental results on a representative nanofluid PCM, and open prospects for the understanding of microscopic mechanism leading to such enhancements.

中文翻译：

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增强纳米流体中的热物理系数：一项模拟研究

熔盐是一种相变材料，广泛用于聚光太阳能发电设施的储热和传热。本文旨在用分子动力学方法模拟纳米流体 PCM。具体来说，KNO 纳米流体的热物理性质3掺杂SiO2通过平衡和非平衡分子动力学模拟研究纳米颗粒。首次计算了 PCM 家族中纳米流体的这些特性。密度、热膨胀系数、比热容、热导率和粘度被表征为 SiO 的函数2纳米粒子浓度。SiO的影响2还研究了纳米颗粒尺寸对纳米流体特性的影响。模拟结果显示了热物理性质的增强，特别是比热容的增强，与代表性纳米流体 PCM 的现有实验结果非常一致，并为理解导致这种增强的微观机制开辟了前景。