Atomic interactions between rock substrate and water-sand mixture with and without graphene nanosheets via molecular dynamics simulation

A Mosavi and M Hekmatifar and D Toghraie and R Sabetvand and A Alizadeh and Z Sadeghi and A Karimipour, JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR LIQUIDS, 323, 114610 (2021).

DOI: 10.1016/j.molliq.2020.114610

In this work, we describe the atomic effects of graphene nanosheets adding to the hydraulic fracturing process by molecular dynamics method. In our simulations, we study the nanosheets type effect on the fracturing process. For this purpose, we reported physical parameters such as temperature, potential energy, joint force, and the number of lost atoms from atomic substrates. In our approach, nanofluid, which used in hydraulic fracturing, is exactly simulated by various interatomic force fields. Our simulations show that adding graphene nanopartides to the first fluid causes maximum atomic removal from simulated rock substrate. Numerically, after 2.5 ns, the departed atoms from rock substrate reach to 74 atoms. Furthermore, the atomic rate of graphene nanosheets is another important parameter in hydraulic fracturing. Our molecular dynamics results show that, by 5% atomic rate of graphene nanosheets to initial fluid, the departed atoms reach to the maximum rate (101 atoms). Finally, by adding graphene nanosheets with 4 nm length, the top quality of particles departed from the rock substrate. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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