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Measurements of the thermal creep flow through a single rectangular microchannel connected to two tanks maintained initially at the same pressure, but at different temperatures, are carried out for five noble gas species, over a large range of pressure and for two temperature differences between the tanks. The time-dependent pressure variations in both cold and hot tanks are investigated, and the temperature-driven (thermal creep) mass flow rate between two tanks is calculated from these data for the rarefaction parameter ranging from the transitional to slip flow regime. The measured mass flow rate is compared with the numerical solution of the S-model kinetic equation, and they show good agreement. A novel approximate expression to calculate the temperature-driven mass flow rate in the transitional and slip flow regimes is proposed. This expression provides results in good agreement with the measured values of the mass flow rate. In the slip flow regime, the thermal slip coefficient is calculated by employing the previously reported methodology, and the influence of the nature of the gas on this coefficient is investigated. The measured values of the thermal slip coefficient agree well with the values available in the literature, indicating that this coefficient is independent of the shape of a channel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents experimental and three-dimensional numerical study of early onset of separation with rarefied gas flow through a tube with single sharp 90° bend. Experiments are conducted for nitrogen gas flowing at low pressures in three conventional size tubes. The flow is dynamically similar to gas flow in a microchannel as the Knudsen number range (0.0003 < Kn < 0.0385) covers part of the continuum and the slip flow regime while maintaining the Reynolds number between 0.27 and 418.5. The static pressures along the inner, outer and top walls are measured for different mass flow rates and analyzed to understand the flow behavior. The static pressure measurement indicates adverse pressure gradient near the bend along the inner and outer walls of the tube at much lower value of Reynolds number as compared to conventional flow. The numerical solution of the Navier–Stokes equations with the Maxwell’s slip boundary condition shows good agreement with experimental data and helps bring out the complex flow behavior near the bend. The adverse pressure gradient, velocity profile, flow streamlines and velocity vectors in the bend plane clearly indicates secondary flows near the bend at as low a Reynolds number as unity. The flow acceleration and the presence of secondary flows near the bend causes a larger pressure drop as compared with a straight tube. Empirical correlations for Poiseuille number and additional pressure drop coefficient are proposed as part of this work. It is noted that limited experimental data exists in the literature for such flows; these results should therefore help enhance the fundamental understanding of gas flow in microchannels with bend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigate the effects of convective heat transfer on the argon gas flow through micro/nanochannels subject to uniform wall heat flux (UWH) boundary condition using the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method. Both the hot wall (qwall > 0) and the cold wall (qwall < 0) cases are considered. We consider the effect of wall heat flux on the centerline pressure, velocity profile and mass flow rate through the channel in the slip regime. The effects of rarefaction, property variations and compressibility are considered. We show that UWH boundary condition leads to the thermal transpiration. Our investigations showed that this thermal transpiration enhances the heat transfer rate at the walls in the case of hot walls and decreases it where the walls are being cooled. We also show that the deviation of the centerline pressure distribution from the linear distribution depends on the direction of the wall heat flux. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies the required convergence time for direct-simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) simulations of rarefied gas flows. An arbitrary-geometry DSMC solver (RGS2D) with an efficient particle-tracking algorithm is introduced and employed for macro-/micro-scale flow applications. Convergence time study is performed by tracing different heat and flow parameters such as intermolecular collision rate, number of particles, drag coefficient, inlet/outlet mass flow rate, and distributions over the wall, i.e., pressure coefficient, skin friction coefficient, heat transfer coefficient, and wall collision rate. The results indicate that the required simulation time depends on the capturing parameter. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Molecular distillation process is a type of vapors transport process at high vacuum in the distillation space between evaporator and condenser. To get a better understanding of vapor flow characteristics in molecular distillation, vapor phase behavior is simulated using the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method. The variable hard sphere (VHS) model is adopted to calculate molecular collisions. Molecular rotation and translation have both been taken into account while dealing with molecular energy distribution after collisions. Flow characteristics obtained for velocity distribution and number density are used to calculate the collision frequency and mean free path in the distillation space. The effects of evaporating temperature, condensing temperature and distillation gap on the vapors flow characteristics are discussed. It is found that for gas molecules by increasing the evaporating temperature, the number density and velocity, collision frequency in distillation space increase, while the mean free path decreases. As the condensing temperature increases, the number density and collision frequency in the distillation space increases, while velocity and mean free path decreases. It is also observed that much narrower distillation gap results in steeper variation tendency of flow characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The flow of a rarefied gas in a rectangular enclosure due to the non-isothermal walls with no synergetic contributions from external force fields is investigated. The top and bottom walls are maintained at constant but different temperatures and along the lateral walls a linear temperature profile is assumed. Modeling is based on the direct numerical solution of the Shakhov kinetic equation and the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method. Solving the problem both deterministically and stochastically allows a systematic comparison and verification of the results as well as the exploitation of the numerical advantages of each approach in the investigation of the involved flow and heat transfer phenomena. The thermally induced flow is simulated in terms of three dimensionless parameters characterizing the problem, namely, the reference Knudsen number, the temperature ratio of the bottom over the top plates, and the enclosure aspect ratio. Their effect on the flow configuration and bulk quantities is thoroughly examined. Along the side walls, the gas flows at small Knudsen numbers from cold-to-hot, while as the Knudsen number is increased the gas flows from hot-to-cold and the thermally induced flow configuration becomes more complex. These flow patterns with the hot-to-cold flow to be extended to the whole length of the non-isothermal side walls may exist even at small temperature differences and then, they are enhanced as the temperature difference between the top and bottom plates is increased. The cavity aspect ratio also influences this flow configuration and the hot-to-cold flow is becoming more dominant as the depth compared to the width of the cavity is increased. To further analyze the flow patterns a novel solution decomposition into ballistic and collision parts is introduced. This is achieved by accordingly modifying the indexing process of the typical DSMC algorithm. The contribution of each part of the solution is separately examined and a physical interpretation of the flow configuration, including the hot-to-cold flow close to the side walls, in the whole range of the Knudsen number is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A transient gas flow through a rectangular slit is simulated on the basis of unsteady S-model kinetic equation. The flow into vacuum and at two pressure ratios between the reservoirs are considered for a wide range of the rarefaction parameter lying from the free molecular to the near continuum regime. The time of steady flow establishment is obtained and it is found that this time depends on the pressure ratio between the reservoirs and on the gas rarefaction. The time evolution of the macroscopic flow parameters is analyzed in detail. The present results are compared with the results on the orifice flow previously obtained by other authors. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The kinetic S-model is used to study the steady rarefied gas flow through a long pipe of variable cross section joining two tanks with arbitrary differences in pressure and temperature. The kinetic equation is solved numerically by applying a second-order accurate conservative method on an unstructured mesh. The basic quantity to be computed is the gas flow rate through the pipe. The possibility of finding a solution based on the assumption of the plane cross sectional flow is also explored. The resulting solutions are compared with previously known results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author opines on a research related to data on internal rarefied gas flows from hydrodynamic to free-molecular flow regime by F. Sharipov and V. Seleznev that was published in a 1998 issue of the periodical and mentions that entire system cannot be considered isolated.

A response from the authors of an research related to data on internal rarefied gas flows from hydrodynamic to free-molecular flow regime, that was published in a 1998 issue is presented.