Mathematical modeling of sustainable energy production using nanotechnology

This chapter reviews the main mathematical and computational techniques used for the modeling of nanotechnology-based sustainable energy systems. The application of nanotechnology in the sustainable energy sector predominantly consists of the use of advanced nanomaterials to enhance already-existing energy-harvesting systems. Numerical simulations are extremely helpful in predicting the behavior of nanomaterials in different applications and elucidating the underlying mechanisms of energy transport at different scales. Successful recent examples of using numerical modeling to develop nanotechnology-based sustainable energy research are briefly mentioned in this chapter. Here, all computational techniques are roughly categorized into either continuum, discrete, or statistical modeling approaches with examples of each category being provided accordingly. In addition, common numerical modeling techniques, namely molecular dynamics, computational fluid dynamics, finite element method, fractal method, and Monte Carlo method, along with their implementation methodologies in the simulation of nanotechnology-based energy systems are explained