Occurrence of Knudsen Minima in Diverging Microchannels

摘要

Rarefied gas flow is gaining increasing importance with the emergence of Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS). Knudsen minima is one of the characteristic feature of such rarefied flows and has been observed in uniform cross section channels such as plane channel, cylindrical tube and annulus. However, data pertaining to gaseous flow in varying cross section channel is relatively sparse. Channels of varying cross section are frequently encountered in MEMS devices and are fundamental to the design of micro-scale nozzles and micro-valves. In this context, rarefied gas flow through a diverging microchannel (divergence angle - 12 degree) is studied experimentally with three different gases (argon, nitrogen and oxygen). The experiments are performed over a wide range with the mean Knudsen number varying from slip to the transitional regime (0.07 to 1.2). It is found that the effect of molecular weight of the gas on the non-dimensional mass flow rate is negligible. The Knudsen minima is experimentally observed for the first time in microchannel of non-uniform cross section.