Gas mixture flow, diffusion, and heat transfer in a long tube at moderately small Knudsen numbers

Abstract

The binary gas mixture flow, diffusion, and heat transfer through a long tube in the near-continuum regime (moderately small Knudsen numbers) are analyzed. The system of linearized third-order moment equations, obtained by Grad’s method, is used. An expression for the total mass flux of a binary gas mixture is deduced by using the extension of the procedure, proposed in the work by Zhdanov [“Slip and barodiffusion phenomena in slow flows of a gas mixture,” Phys. Rev. E 95, 033106 (2017)] for the study of slip phenomena in slow flows of a gas mixture. Relations for diffusion and heat fluxes are determined from the initial system of moment equations, averaged over the channel cross section, and supplied with several moments of the distribution function at the channel wall found with the modified Maxwell method. Analytical formulas for kinetic coefficients of the Onsager matrix, which connect averaged fluxes and gradients of the corresponding thermodynamic quantities, are obtained. It is shown that the employed approach automatically ensures the validity of the reciprocal relations for the cross terms in the Onsager matrix. The results of calculations of the derived kinetic coefficients for several binary mixtures of noble gases (He–Ar, Ne–Ar, and He–Xe) are presented and compared with numerical data found by the discrete velocity method on the basis of the linearized Boltzmann equation with the McCormack model.