New energy technologies demand improved knowledge of the thermal transport properties of fluid mixtures, often including water as a component. It is well established that the thermal conductivity of fluids exhibits strong enhancement near gas-liquid and liquid-liquid critical points due to critical fluctuations, remaining significant over extended regions around these critical points. Fluids composed of molecules with large size and polarity differences highlight the key phenomena involved in the thermal transport properties of mixtures. NIST has unique transient hot-wire capability available to measure the thermal conductivity of pure fluids and mixtures over wide ranges of temperature (60-750 K) and pressure (0-70 MPa). Hydrodynamic and mode-coupling theory for mixtures highlights coupling between thermal transport properties and diffusion in the critical region. Light scattering and shadowgraph techniques may offer additional insight in the critical region. Opportunities exist for development of theory for and measurements of background and critical region thermal transport properties of such mixture systems. Proposals that integrate theoretical development with experimental measurements of mixture transport properties are encouraged.

 

key words

Critical Enhancement; Energy; Fluid mixtures; Thermal conductivity, Transport properties; Water;

Citizenship:  Open to U.S. citizens

Level:  Open to Postdoctoral applicants