Molecular modeling of force driven gas flows in nano-channels

Abstract

Nano-scale gas transport plays an important role in many micro/nanotechnology applications where the rarefied gas dynamics based solutions are frequently used by maintaining a “dynamic similarity” between low pressure (rarefied) and nano gas flows. However, such a consideration is incomplete since the surface force field effects dominant in nano-levels induce significant variations. In order to specify the surface force effects on gas transport, we define a new parameter (B) as the ratio of force penetration length to the channel height, and studied the length scales and conditions for applicability of current rarefied gas dynamics on nano-scale gas flows. Using Molecular Dynamics, force driven gas flows were characterized as a function of B parameter and Knudsen number. Results showed that for a negligible value of B parameter (B?0) transport can be described by rarefied gas dynamics in the whole Knudsen range while the velocity profiles are parabolic and the variation of mass flow rate shows the well-known Knudsen minimum around Kn=1. As the flow dimension decreases, B becomes a finite value indicating the dominancy of surface force effects over rarefaction, and gas velocities and mass transport significantly deviates from the kinetic theory predictions. © 2016 9th International Conference on Computational Fluid Dynamics, ICCFD 2016 - Proceedings. All rights reserved.