Thermal Conductivity and Specific Heat Capacity of Carbon Nanotube Bundles

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been thoroughly documented to demonstrate superior heat transfer properties. It has also been determined that these properties decrease substantially as overall dimensions increase from the nanoscale to the microscale. Using non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations and finite element analysis, the influence of both internal and external thermal boundary resistance effects on the thermal conductivity and specific heat capacity of single walled carbon nanotube bundles were investigated. Comparisons were made between accepted property values for single CNTs and for CNT bundles. Also, energy transfer between varying sized bundles of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and a surrounding pressure-driven Lennard-Jones (LJ) fluid were calculated.