Thermal Transport in Methane Hydrate by Molecular Dynamics and Phonon Inelastic Scattering

The heat conduction and thermal conductivity for methane hydrate are simulated from equilibrium molecular dynamics. The thermal conductivity and temperature dependence trend agree well with the experimental results. The nonmonotonic temperature dependence is attributed to the phonon inelastic scattering at higher temperature and to the confinement of the optic phonon modes and low frequency phonons at low temperature. The thermal conductivity scales proportionally with the van der Waals interaction strength. The conversion of a crystal-like nature into an amorphous one occurs at higher strength. Both the temperature dependence and interaction strength dependence are explained by phonon inelastic scattering.