Influence of surface properties on the dynamics of fluid flow

Abstract

In this paper, we study how the fluid flow near the surface of a monocrystalline body is affected by the surface properties due to atom-surface scattering. We propose a toy model for this system by parameterizing the surface with a periodic function of the tangential position. This allows us to derive the velocity probability density function in the Knudsen layer and determine statistical averages of fluid velocity and stress tensor components in the region of interest. The results of this analysis provide a potentially more fundamental and accurate explanation for empirically observed phenomena such as the no-slip boundary condition, boundary layer formation, and the onset of hydrodynamic instability.