Gas flows in microchannels and microtubes

Abstract

This study analyses compressible gas flows through microchannels or microtubes, and develops two complete sets of asymptotic solutions. It is a natural extension of the previous work by Arkilicet al. on compressible flows through microchannels. First, by comparing the magnitudes of different forces in the compressible gas flow, we obtain proper estimations for the Reynolds and Mach numbers at the outlets. Second, based on these estimations, we obtain asymptotic analytical solutions of velocities, pressure and temperature distributions of compressible gas flow inside the microchannels and microtubes with a relaxation of the isothermal assumption, which was previously used in many studies. Numerical simulations of compressible flows through a microchannel and a microtube are performed by solving the compressible Navier–Stokes equations, with velocity slip and temperature jump wall boundary conditions. The numerical simulation results validate the analytical results from this study.