How Can Molecular Simulations Contribute to Thermal Engineering ? — Topics from Microbubbles and Microscale Heat Conduction —

This review covers several problems in thermal engineering which require consideration in nano-scale or at molecular level. One example in nanofluidics is “nano bubbles”; molecular simulation reveals that surface tension and vapor pressure of a spherical bubble hardly depend on its size and that the classical Young-Laplace equation is applicable even to a bubble as small as several nano meters. Combined with CFD schemes, molecular simulation can also treat oscillating dynamics of nanobubbles. Another example comes from solid-state physics, i.e., thermophysical properties of nano-scale elements. As the thickness of solid thin film decreases to “phonon mean free path”, the apparent thermal conductivity becomes smaller, the mechanism of which molecular simulation can explain.

Abstract licence: CC BY-NC-ND

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