Abstract
Oscillatory rarefied gas flows are of main theoretical importance in fluid mechanics, revealing novel non-equilibrium transport phenomena, as well as of strong engineering interest in various technological fields, including microfluidics and vacuum technology. As in the case of viscous oscillatory flows, rarefied oscillatory gas flows are encountered in enclosures, driven by moving boundaries oscillating parallel or vertical to the main flow and in capillaries of various cross sections, driven by oscillating or pulsatile pressure or force gradients. Since in rarefied gas flows the classical Navier-Stokes-Fourier approach is not applicable, kinetic modeling and simulations, based on the computational solution of the Boltzmann equation or of reliable kinetic model equations via deterministic or stochastic schemes, have been implemented. Oscillatory gas flows are in the hydrodynamic regime, when both the mean free path and the oscillation frequency are much smaller than the characteristic ...
Oscillatory rarefied gas flows are of main theoretical importance in fluid mechanics, revealing novel non-equilibrium transport phenomena, as well as of strong engineering interest in various technological fields, including microfluidics and vacuum technology. As in the case of viscous oscillatory flows, rarefied oscillatory gas flows are encountered in enclosures, driven by moving boundaries oscillating parallel or vertical to the main flow and in capillaries of various cross sections, driven by oscillating or pulsatile pressure or force gradients. Since in rarefied gas flows the classical Navier-Stokes-Fourier approach is not applicable, kinetic modeling and simulations, based on the computational solution of the Boltzmann equation or of reliable kinetic model equations via deterministic or stochastic schemes, have been implemented. Oscillatory gas flows are in the hydrodynamic regime, when both the mean free path and the oscillation frequency are much smaller than the characteristic length and the collision frequency respectively. When either of these restrictions is relaxed, the flow is classified as rarefied and may be in the transition or free molecular regimes depending on the time and space characteristic scales. Boundary driven rarefied oscillatory flows have attracted over the last two decades considerable attention. They may be present in resonating filters, sensors and actuators, as well as in systems enhancing acoustic transduction or achieving acoustic cloaking. Pressure or force driven rarefied oscillatory or pulsatile gas flows have attracted much less attention. They are also encountered in numerous typical and innovative applications in the transition and free molecular regimes, including pneumatic lines, electronic cooling, pulse tubes, enhanced heat and mass transfer devices, gas separation and mixing technologies and gas pumping systems.In the present Ph.D. thesis oscillatory rarefied gas flows in various flow setups are considered in the whole range of gas rarefaction and oscillation frequencies. The investigation includes oscillatory and pulsatile fully-developed gas flow through circular and rectangular channels, subject to oscillatory pressure gradients of small amplitude, as well as to oscillatory nonlinear fully-developed flow between parallel plates, subject to oscillatory forces of arbitrary amplitude. The investigation in capillaries also includes oscillatory fully-developed binary gas mixture flow between parallel plates driven by oscillatory pressure and molar fraction gradients. Furthermore, boundary driven flow in comb-type enclosures subject to vertical or lateral harmonic motion of the moving surface is investigated. The analysis is based, depending on the flow configuration on the deterministic solution of the BGK, Shakhov and McCormack kinetic models, as well as on the DSMC method. In all flow setups the effect of the flow and geometry parameters on the macroscopic distributions and overall quantities characterizing the flow is investigated, providing interesting theoretical and technological findings. The oscillatory and pulsatile isothermal fully-developed rarefied gas flow in circular tubes and rectangular ducts respectively are simulated based on the linearized unsteady BGK kinetic model subject to Maxwell boundary conditions. Computational results for the amplitude, phase angle and time evolution of the velocity distribution, the flow rate, the mean wall shear stress, the acting inertial and viscous forces, the pumping power and the time average pumping power are provided, covering the whole range of gas rarefaction and oscillation parameters. The results are successfully validated with corresponding analytical or semi-analytical results in the slip and free molecular regimes for low and high oscillation frequencies, as well as with steady-state numerical results, which are reached faster as the flow becomes more rarefied. The amplitudes of the flow rate and the mean wall shear stress are always smaller than the corresponding steady ones. In general, as the frequency is increased the amplitude of the macroscopic quantities is decreased and their phase angle lag with respect to the pressure gradient is increased approaching asymptotically the limiting value of 90 degrees. The detailed computation of the inertia and viscous forces in terms of the gas rarefaction and oscillation parameters, clarifies when the flow consists of only one oscillating viscous region or of two regions, namely the inviscid piston flow in the core and the oscillating frictional Stokes layer at the wall with the velocity overshooting (Richardson effect). As the gas rarefaction is increased higher oscillation frequencies are needed to trigger these phenomena. In terms of the gas rarefaction, there is a non-monotonic behavior and the maximum flow rate amplitude may be observed at some intermediate value of the gas rarefaction parameter depending upon the oscillation parameter. The accommodation coefficient, characterizing the gas-surface interaction, has a significant effect on the amplitudes of the macroscopic quantities and a very weak one on their phases. The time average pumping power is increased as the oscillation frequency is reduced and its maximum value is one half of the corresponding steady one. Next, the oscillatory nonlinear force driven fully-developed rarefied gas flow has been analyzed based on the DSMC method, as well as on the nonlinear BGK and Shakhov models, subject to diffuse boundary conditions. It has been found that even with large force amplitudes all macroscopic distributions have sinusoidal pattern with its fundamental frequency being the same with the driving frequency of the external force without the appearance of other harmonics, except of the axial heat flow where the nonlinearities are responsible for generating oscillatory motion containing several harmonics. Nonlinear effects are becoming more significant in highly rarefied flows with low oscillation frequencies. The DSMC flow rates have been compared with corresponding linear oscillatory ones, to find out that at small and moderate external forces, the agreement between nonlinear and linear flow rates is very good and always remains less than 10%, while at large external forces the deviation in the flow rate amplitude reaches about 25%. The bimodal shape of the temperature profile and nonconstant pressure profile, encountered in steady-state flows in the continuum limit, are also observed here and strongly depend on the gas rarefaction and oscillation parameters. The axial heat flow is the most affected macroscopic quantity by the amplitude of the external force. At large external forces and highly rarefied flows with low oscillation frequencies it exhibits a complex non-sinusoidal pattern containing several harmonics. The cycle-average pumping power is increased proportionally to the square of the external force amplitude and is smaller than the corresponding linear one following the same trend with the flow rates. In the case of nonisothermal plates, the space-average normal heat flow is not enhanced by increasing either the oscillation frequency or the force amplitude. The agreement between the DSMC and kinetic models is very good in flow rates and shear stresses but it deteriorates in heat flows. The investigation in oscillatory capillary flows is concluded by examining the oscillatory pressure and molar fraction driven rarefied binary gas mixture flow between parallel plates, based on the McCormack model subject to diffuse boundary conditions. The presented results are for He–Xe, He-Ar and Ne–Ar with their molar fraction varying from zero to one. The output quantities include the macroscopic quantities of each species and of the mixture and they are successfully validated in various ways, including grid refinement, fulfillment of the derived force balance benchmark expression and systematic comparisons at limiting conditions, such as steady-state binary gas flow and oscillatory single gas flow. The flow rate, wall shear stress and pumping power of the oscillatory binary gas mixture flow have qualitative resemblance with the corresponding ones in oscillatory single gas flow, in terms of the gas rarefaction and oscillation parameters, but there are quantitative deviations particularly in the flow rates depending on the molar fraction and the mixture composition. As the molecular mass ratio of the heavy over the light species is increased, the mixture flow rate amplitude becomes larger and the phase angle becomes smaller than the corresponding ones of the single gas. The variation with respect to the molar fraction is non-monotonic, taking the maximum and minimum values for the amplitude and the phase angle respectively at intermediate values of the molar fraction. Concerning the species, it has been found that as the oscillation frequency is increased, although the flow rate amplitudes of both species are decreased, the relative difference between the flow rate amplitudes of the light and heavy species is increased. This behavior becomes more pronounced as the gas rarefaction is decreased, which is certainly not expected, since as it is well-known gas separation effects are decreased as the flow becomes less rarefied. This is due to inertia effects, which are increased with the oscillation frequency and they influence the flow rate amplitude of the heavy species much more than of the light one. This effect is further amplified as the flow becomes less rarefied, overcoming diffusion effects due to intermolecular collisions, provided that the oscillation frequency is sufficiently large. It has been confirmed that at high frequencies the flow rate amplitude ratio of the light over the heavy species, independent of the gas rarefaction parameter, tends to the molecular mass ratio of the heavy over the light species. Also, the phase lag of the flow rate of the heavy species are always larger than the corresponding one of the light one, while the velocity overshooting effect becomes more dominant as the molecular mass of the gas species is increased. The present results may be useful in the design and development of gas separation devises operating at moderate and high frequencies in the whole range of gas rarefaction applicable in various technological fields. Turning next to boundary driven flows the classical oscillatory Couette flow and the two-dimensional oscillatory rarefied gas flow in comb-type structures driven by the vertical/lateral harmonic motion of the moving surface are investigated. The former one has been analyzed based on the linearized BGK kinetic model and it is considered mainly for benchmarking the developed complex kinetic codes. Excellent agreement between the present results and the available ones in the literature is observed. Also, a computationally efficient marching-type scheme is reported, with the real and imaginary parts of the kinetic formulation separately treated and solved. In addition, two parallelization strategies based on OpenMP and OpenACC directives are reported and a suitable speed-up is achieved without doing major modifications in the kinetic solver. Then, the developed validated parallel codes have been accordingly extended and adapted to all examined flow configurations. The time-dependent comb-type flow setup has been analyzed based on the linearized Shakhov kinetic model with diffuse boundary conditions. The vibrating part is the inner one, formatting complex flow patterns depending on the gas rarefaction and oscillation parameters, as well as on the comb dimensions. Computational results are presented mainly for the average normal pressure and shear stress at the moving walls. As the rarefaction parameter is increased the amplitudes of both quantities are initially reduced reaching some minimum values, then they slightly increase and oscillate and finally, they remain constant. The local minimums and maximums in the amplitudes correspond to certain anti-resonance and resonance states respectively, which may be implemented to control the system dissipation. The dimensions of the comb assembly affect the flow significantly at low oscillation frequencies. On the contrary, in the high frequency regime, the normal pressure and shear stress remain constant despite any change in comb dimensions. In these cases gas trapping is observed and the flow may be modeled as one-dimensional. The presented results may be useful in the development of the new generation acceleration sensors and resonators. Overall, it may be stated that following specific kinetic formulation, modeling and simulations, various oscillatory flow setups have been considered in the whole range of gas rarefaction and oscillation frequency parameters. The investigation of oscillatory and pulsatile flows of single gases and binary gas mixtures in capillaries due to externally imposed small or large amplitude driving mechanisms, as well as of the oscillatory boundary driven comb assembly response, is novel and all corresponding results are reported for first time in the literature. It is hoped that the theoretical findings and the computational results reported here will support, at some extend, the detailed design and optimization of various technological devices.
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