Non-isothermal rarefied gas flow in microtube with constant wall temperature

Abstract

In this paper, pressure-driven gas flow through a microtube with constant wall temperature is considered. The ratio of the molecular mean free path and the diameter of the microtube cannot be negligible. Therefore, the gas rarefaction is taken into account. A solution is obtained for subsonic as well as slip and continuum gas flow. Velocity, pressure, and temperature fields are analytically attained by macroscopic approach, using continuity, Navier-Stokes, and energy equations, with the first order boundary conditions for velocity and temperature. Characteristic variables are expressed in the form of perturbation series. The first approximation stands for solution to the continuum flow. The second one reveals the effects of gas rarefaction, inertia, and dissipation. Solutions for compressible and incompressible gas flow are presented and compared with the available results from the literature. A good matching has been achieved. This enables using proposed method for solving other microtube gas flows, which are common in various fields of engineering, biomedicine, pharmacy, etc. The main contribution of this paper is the integral treatment of several important effects such as rarefaction, compressibility, temperature field variability, inertia, and viscous dissipation in the presented solutions. Since the solutions are analytical, they are useful and easily applicable.