Potential of molecular dynamics in the simulation of nanofluids properties and stability

•Review of investigations on the MD Simulation of Nanofluid properties and Stability.•Four nanofluid properties of thermal conductivity, specific heat, density, and viscosity.•MD simulated the impacts of nanoparticles, basefluid, and nanochannel constituents.•MD simulation was proven as a viable alternative method for analyzing the NF properties.•Different impacts of the studied parameters on the nanofluid properties and stability.•Higher water-based nanofluid stability and using spherical-shaped nanoparticles. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations have been presented as an alternate method for analyzing the effects of various parameters on the thermal and rheological properties of nanofluids (NF) as well as their stability. The current work offers a complete evaluation of the investigations undertaken to investigate the characteristics and stability of nanofluids using the MD modeling technique. The different MD models and nanofluid types were discussed at the beginning. The feasibility of using MD simulations to evaluate the dependency of all four; thermal conductivity, specific heat, density, and viscosity of nanofluids on a number of factors that define the nanofluid constituents has been discussed, examined, and summarized. Additionally, the work shed light on the application of MD simulation to the evaluation of nanofluid stability. The nanoparticles’ type, shape, size, concentration, and aggregation, as well as the basefluid type, nanofluid temperature, interfacial layer between basefluid and nanoparticles, and nanochannel form and size, were discovered to influence the final characteristics and stability of nanofluids. The examined parameters were observed as of different impacts on the nanofluid properties and stability. The MD studies on nanofluids declared that increasing the nanoparticles concentration was found as of a positive impact on thermal conductivity and viscosity, a negative impact on specific heat, and a very low impact on density. The findings revealed that better NF stability could be achieved using greater shares of water in the NF constituents in addition to the existence of spherical-shaped NPs. Several findings and dependencies of the final nanofluid character are discussed here inside. The MD simulation has been proven as a viable alternative validated method for analyzing the NF properties, however, more research is still needed to clarify several not yet resolved relations.