Working gas temperature and pressure changes for microscale thermal creep-driven flow caused by discontinuous wall temperatures

Abstract

Microscale temperature gradient-driven (thermal creep/transpiration) gas flows have attracted significant interest during the past decade. For free molecular and transitional conditions, applying temperature gradients to a flow channel's walls induces the thermal creep effect. This results in a working gas flowing through the channel from cold to hot, which is generally accompanied by a rising pressure from cold to hot in the channel. Working gas temperature and pressure distributions can vary significantly, depending on a flow channel's configuration and wall temperature distribution. Understanding working gas temperature excursions, both increases and decreases, is essential to ensure the effective use of thermal creep flows in microscale applications. In this study, the characterizations of working gas temperature variations, due to both temperature discontinuities and more gradual changes, on a variety of flow channel walls, were systematically investigated using the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method. A micro/meso-scale pump, the Knudsen compressor, was chosen to illustrate the importance of controlling working gas temperature in thermal creep-driven flows. Gas pressure and temperature variations, through several Knudsen compressor stage configurations, were studied to determine the most advantageous flow phenomena for the efficient operation of Knudsen compressors.