Molecular dynamics modeling of the effect of thermal interface material on thermal contact conductance

Thermal contact conductance is used to indicate the resistance offered by a contact interface to the flow of heat. When an interface material is applied as nano-layered coatings on super-finished contacting surfaces, the possibility of size effects necessitates the use of a discrete computation method for its analysis. Hence, a methodology is proposed which utilizes Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations to obtain the size affected thermal conductivity of the interfacial layer, which in turn characterizes the thermal contact conductance behavior. Molecular Dynamics codes have been developed, making use of Sutton-Chen many-body potential, suitable for metallic materials. The model includes the asperities at the contact interface, assuming the asperities to be of a simplified geometry. The paper also presents the validation of the codes developed, and parametric studies on the effect of temperature, number of asperities and the material used for thermal interface coating on the size-affected interfacial conductivity.