Gas flow characteristics in nanopores were investigated experimentally and numerically using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations with an emphasis on the friction factor and gas viscosity. The results show that the viscosity and the friction factor in nanopores are much lower than those in macroscale channels. The actual viscosities obtained from the MD studies showed that the gas viscosity in nanopores is less than the macroscale viscosity because collisions between gas molecules are less frequent in high Knudsen number flows and there are more collisions with the wall. The MD simulations show that the velocity profile is composed of two parts, with a much steeper velocity gradient near the wall.
The nanoparticle thermal conductivity and nanoscale thermal contact resistance were investigated by molecular dynamics(MD) simulations to further understand nanoscale porous media thermal conductivity.Macroscale porous media thermal conductivity models were then revised for nanoporous media.The effective thermal conductivities of two packed beds with nanoscale nickel particles and a packed bed with microscale nickel particles were then measured using the Hot Disk.The measured results show that the nano/microscale porous media thermal conductivities were much less than the thermal conductivities of the solid particles.Comparison of the measured and calculated results shows that the revised combined parallel-series model and the revised Hsu-Cheng model can accurately predict the effective thermal conductivities of micro-and nanoparticle packed beds.
