Numerical simulation of a MEMS Pirani vacuum sensor

摘要

This work presents a method to simulate the heat exchange characteristics of a MEMS Pirani vacuum sensor. The simulation couples the electro-thermal sensor system with the surrounding rarefied gas atmosphere. The heat exchange between the sensor and the surrounding gas is modelled by the exchange of boundary conditions between the solid and the gas (fluid) region. The dilution effects which occur under rarefied gas atmosphere are taken into account by an adapted slip boundary condition. The simulation has been carried out using a specially adapted solver which is implemented in Open- FOAM. The simulated results are in excellent agreement with the measured data of a MEMS Pirani vacuum sensor.