Application of Knudsen Force for Development of Modern Micro Gas Sensors

Abstract

Development of new simple gas sensor is highly significant due to its various industrial applications. In this chapter, comprehensive studies on the new micro gas sensor of Micro In-plane Knudsen Radiometric Actuator (MIKRA) are done to evaluate the performance of its technique on the detection of gas. This new micro gas sensor works by the radiometric phenomena, which occurs due to temperature difference in rarefied gas. In order to simulate this micro gas sensor, direct simulation Mont Carlo (DSMC) is recognized as a reliable method. This study highly focused on the main mechanisms of the flow feature and force generation in low-pressure domain. In order to study this micro gas sensor, comprehensive numerical results are thoroughly investigated and the effects of primary factors and parameters are revealed. In addition, the main details of computational approach for the simulation of this micro gas sensor are fully presented. Finally, the performance of this sensor in various operating conditions is explained and main findings are discussed.

Development of MEMS gas actuator for analyzing a gas mixture

“…Actually, the non-uniformity of the temperature in the rarefied gas yield a force recognized as Knudsen force. Former researches [4][5] exhibited that this kind of force is extremely sensitive to the main characteristics of the gas species.…”