Molecular dynamics investigation of thermo-physical properties of molten salt with nanoparticles for solar energy application

Molten salt is an important medium for thermal storage, which is widely used in concentrating solar power plants. The addition of nanomaterials becomes an effective way to overcome the unsatisfactory thermo-physical properties of pure molten salt. In the present study, molecular dynamics simulations are performed to investigate the influence of SiO2 nanoparticle on the thermo-physical properties of solar salt. Two kinds of models of solar salt nanofluids, i.e., different sizes of boxes with the same size of nanoparticles and the same size of boxes with different sizes of nanoparticles, at the mass fractions of nanoparticles of 1%, 2%, 3%, 4%, 5%, and 6% are built to analyze the size effects on the simulation results. The effects of SiO2 nanoparticles on the specific heat capacity, viscosity and thermal conductivity of the composited thermal energy storage (CTES) materials are studied extensively. The microscopic mechanism of the thermo-physical properties variation is revealed by calculating the mean square displacement (MSD), diffusion coefficient, Radial distribution function (RDF) and energy of systems. It is proved that the calculations of shear viscosity, specific heat capacity and MSD do not have size effect. An enhancement as large as 2.05% in the specific heat capacity of the CTES materials has been found with 2 wt% addition of nanoparticles. The presence of the compressed layer on the surface of the nanoparticles might be responsible for the enhancement of the specific heat capacity according to the calculation of RDF. It is also found that with the increase of mass fraction of nanoparticles, the viscosity of the CTES materials increases due to the enhancement of interaction between ions in the base fluid. Therefore, in order to avoid the negative effects caused by excessive viscosity of solar salt in thermal energy storage system, it is suggested to consider the appropriate amount of nanoparticles. The addition of SiO2 nanoparticles enhances the thermal conductivity of the CTES materials with the increase of mass fraction of nanoparticles. It is demonstrated that the enhancement of ion collision frequency in the base fluid is the main factor for the enhancement of thermal conductivity by the addition of SiO2 nanoparticles.