OICC Press International Nano Letters 2228-5326 3 1 (December 2013) 2013 11 27 Molecular dynamics simulation of the specific heat capacity of water-Cu nanofluids 10.1186/2228-5326-3-58 EN Ali Rajabpour Mechanical Engineering Department, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, 34194-288, IR Farrokh Yousefi Akizi Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences, Zanjan, 45195-1159, IR Mohammad Mahdi Heyhat Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, K. N. Toosi University of Technology, Tehran, IR Kiarash Gordiz The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332, US Journal Article 2013 11 27 Abstract This paper presents molecular dynamics (MD) modeling for calculating the specific heat of nanofluids containing copper nanoparticles. The Cu nanoparticles with 2-nm diameter were considered to be dispersed in water as base liquid. The MD modeling procedure presented and implemented to calculate the specific heat of nanofluids with volume fractions of 2 to 10%. Obtained results show that the specific heat capacity of Cu-water nanofluids decreases gradually with increasing volume concentration of nanoparticles. The simulation results are compared with two existing applied models for prediction of the specific heat of the nanofluid. The obtained specific heat results from the MD simulation and the prediction from the thermal equilibrium model for calculating specific heat of nanofluids exhibit good agreement and the other simple mixing model fails to predict the specific heat capacity of Cu-water nanofluids particularly at high volume fractions.