Liquid metal (LM) has attracted much attention in advanced
thermal
management due to its superior thermal conductivity. The traditional
research method of LM thermal conductivity is mainly based on experimental
measurement at the macroscale. It is well known that thermal conduction
is attributed to the thermal motion of molecules and atoms. It is
valuable to study the thermal conductivity of LM in conjunction with
atomic thermal motion at the microscale. In this work, the reverse
nonequilibrium molecular dynamics (RNEMD) method is proposed to study
the variation pattern and influencing factors of gallium-based LM
thermal conductivity. The three-dimensional physical model of crystal
lattice structure was developed. The thermal motion trajectories of
atoms at the microscale were observed and investigated. The thermal
conductivity was calculated by the RNEMD method. The effect of temperature
and components on the thermal conductivity of gallium-based LM was
systematically analyzed. The results show that the thermal conductivity
of gallium-based LM increases linearly with temperature, which is
consistence with the trend in the intensity of atomic thermal motion.
Furthermore, the thermal conductivity of Ga42.25In35.5Sn22.25 is significantly higher than that of
Ga67In20.5Sn12.5 at high temperatures,
which might be attributed to the higher proportion of indium and tin
in the alloy. However, the increase in the composition of tin inhibits
the atomic thermal motion at low temperatures, thus weakening the
heat transfer properties of the alloy.