Thermal conductivity of dielectric nanowires with different cross-section shapes

Non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations have been performed to investigate the effect of the cross-section shape on the thermal conductivity of argon nanowires. Some typical cross-section shapes, such as triangle, square, pentagon, hexagon and circle, are carefully explored. The simulation results show that with the same cross-sectional area of the regular polygons, the thermal conductivities decrease with the reduction of the sides of the polygons, and the thermal conductivity of the circular nanowire is larger than those of the other polygonal ones. Phonon gas kinetic theory is used to analyse the phonon transport in nanowires, and the concept of equivalent diameter is proposed to illustrate the characteristic dimension of the none-circular cross-section.