Non-isothermal gas flow through rectangular microchannels

Abstract

The mass flow rate of a rarefied gas through a long rectangular channel caused by both pressure and temperature differences was calculated applying the S-model kinetic equation. The calculations have been carried out over wide ranges of the four parameters that determine the solution of the problem: the gas rarefaction, the height-to-width ratio of the channel, the pressure ratio on the channel ends and the analogous temperature ratio. First, the Poiseuille flow and the thermal creep were calculated, separately, as functions of the local rarefaction parameter, assuming the pressure and the temperature gradients to be small. The lateral-wall influence on the flow rates was analyzed. The total mass flow rate for the temperature ratio equal to 3.8 and for two values of the pressure ratio (1 and 100) was calculated. The corresponding numerical program is available at the site: www.fisica.ufpr.br/sharipov.