Role of Brownian motion hydrodynamics on nanofluid thermal conductivity

We use a kinetic theory based analysis of heat flow in fluid suspensions of solid nanoparticles (nanofluids) to demonstrate that the hydrodynamics effects associated with Brownian motion have only a minor effect on the thermal conductivity of the nanofluid. This analysis is supported by the results of molecular dynamics simulations of heat flow in a model nanofluid with well-dispersed particles. Our findings are consistent with the predictions of the effective medium theory as well as with recent experimental results on well-dispersed metal nanoparticle suspensions. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.