Detection of ammonia gas by Knudsen thermal force in micro gas actuator

Abstract

Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method is applied to evaluate the performance of a new micro gas sensor (MIKRA) for mass analysis of ammonia in the rarefied gas. In order to simulate a rarefied gas inside the micro gas detector, Boltzmann equation is applied to obtain high precision results. This study performed comprehensive studies to reveal the main mechanism of force generation and applied this for the analysis of the gas mixture. Our findings show that value of generated Knudsen force significantly varies when the percentage of the NH3 varies in the mixture. According to obtained results, the maximum Knudsen force increases when the fraction of the ammonia decreases. Our findings reveal that the effect of gap size varies with the pressure of the domain. In addition, the increase of temperature gradient from 40 K to 100 K rises the maximum Knudsen force more than 400% on the shuttle arm. Keywords: Ammonia, Knudsen force, DSMC, Low-pressure gas sensor, MEMS