Heat transfer effects on particle motion under rarefied conditions

Abstract

Gas–solid flows occurring on very small spatial scales (of the order of micro and nanometres) are of great relevance in a number of industrial applications. It is currently not well established how particle motion and filtration are affected by non-isothermal conditions at such scales. Furthermore, when the particle size is comparable to the mean free path of the gas, rarefaction effects become important. In the present work we investigate the effects of heat transfer and non-isothermal conditions on the motion of small particles in rarefied flow. For that purpose, a suitable framework is developed here as a generic multiphase DNS method for rarefied flows. The resulting model is valid for low particle Reynolds number flows, irrespective of the Biot number, and for particle Knudsen numbers up to unity in unbounded flow. Using this model, we show that there is different settling behaviour of particles with an internal heat source in rarefied and continuum cases of the carrier gas respectively. It is shown that the chances for thermal levitation and/or lifting up of a particle due to buoyancy effects are significantly reduced under rarefied conditions.