Filter-matrix lattice Boltzmann model for microchannel gas flows

Abstract

The lattice Boltzmann method has been shown to be successful for microscale gas flows, and it has attracted significant research interest. In this paper, the recently proposed filter-matrix lattice Boltzmann (FMLB) model is first applied to study the microchannel gas flows, in which a Bosanquet-type effective viscosity is used to capture the flow behaviors in the transition regime. A kinetic boundary condition, the combined bounce-back and specular-reflection scheme with the second-order slip scheme, is also designed for the FMLB model. By analyzing a unidirectional flow, the slip velocity and the discrete effects related to the boundary condition are derived within the FMLB model, and a revised scheme is presented to overcome such effects, which have also been validated through numerical simulations. To gain an accurate simulation in a wide range of Knudsen numbers, covering the slip and the entire transition flow regimes, a set of slip coefficients with an introduced fitting function is adopted in the revised second-order slip boundary condition. The periodic and pressure-driven microchannel flows have been investigated by the present model in this study. The numerical results, including the velocity profile and the mass flow rate, as well as the nonlinear pressure distribution along the channel, agree fairly well with the solutions of the linearized Boltzmann equation, the direct simulation Monte Carlo results, the experimental data, and the previous results of the multiple effective relaxation lattice Boltzmann model. Also, the present results of the velocity profile and the mass flow rate show that the present model with the fitting function can yield improved predictions for the microchannel gas flow with higher Knudsen numbers in the transition flow regime.