Comparison of Solution Methods for some Classical Flow Problems in Rarified Gas Dynamics

Abstract

A comparison of two methods of solution to classical flow problem in rarefied gas dynamics was presented. The two methods were chosen to examine the effect of the following transport phenomena (pressure gradient and temperature difference) viz Poiseuille and Thermal creep respectively on the flow of rarefied gas. The governing equations were approximated using BGK model. It was shown that while the Discrete Ordinate Method could consider more values of the accommodation coefficients, the Finite Difference Method can only take accommodation coefficient of one. It was also shown that the flow rate has its minimum in both solution methods at K n = 0.1 in the transition regime and that as the channels get wider, the Thermal creep volume flow rates get smaller.