Design and Analysis of a New Energy Harvesting Device Based on Knudsen Effect

摘要

First discovered by Danish physicist Martin Knudsen in 1910, the Knudsen effect describes a rarefied flow effect of thermal creep, this effect results in a micro-scale gas pump called Knudsen compressor. Recent studies have shown that with micro-scale channels the Knudsen compressor can operate efficiently under low inlet pressure near vacuum. In this study, the possibility of Knudsen compressor filled with nano scale aerogel working at atmosphere pressure is first studied by Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) and numerical analysis. Based on The simulation results a new energy harvesting device is proposed. The numerical analysis indicates that for a typical summer day in subtropical region, an array of multi-stages Knudsen compressor in 1m~2 area could capture energy of 74W.