Experimental and Numerical Studies on Gas Flow Through Silicon Microchannels

2017 ◽  
Vol 139 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Srinivasan ◽  
P. M. V. Subbarao ◽  
S. R. Kale

The present work investigates the extension of Navier–Stokes equations from slip-to-transition regimes with higher-order slip boundary condition. To achieve this, a slip model based on the second-order slip boundary condition was derived and a special procedure was developed to simulate slip models using FLUENT®. The boundary profile for both top and bottom walls was solved for each pressure ratio by the customized user-defined function and then passed to the FLUENT® solver. The flow characteristics in microchannels of various aspect ratios (a = H/W = 0.002, 0.01, and 0.1) by generating accurate and high-resolution experimental data along with the computational validation was studied. For that, microchannel system was fabricated in silicon wafers with controlled surface structure and each system has several identical microchannels of same dimensions in parallel and the processed wafer was bonded with a plane wafer. The increased flow rate reduced uncertainty substantially. The experiments were performed up to maximum outlet Knudsen number of 1.01 with nitrogen and the second-order slip coefficients were found to be C1 = 1.119–1.288 (TMAC = 0.944–0.874) and C2 = 0.34.

Author(s):  
Joris C. G. Verschaeve

By means of the continuity equation of the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations, additional physical arguments for the derivation of a formulation of the no-slip boundary condition for the lattice Boltzmann method for straight walls at rest are obtained. This leads to a boundary condition that is second-order accurate with respect to the grid spacing and conserves mass. In addition, the boundary condition is stable for relaxation frequencies close to two.


Author(s):  
O. Rovenskaya ◽  
G. Croce

Numerical investigation of a gas flow through microchannels with a sharp, 90 degrees bend is carried out using Navier-Stokes (N-S) equations with the classical Maxwell first-order slip boundary condition, including the tangential gradient effect due to the wall curvature, and Smoluchowski first order temperature jump definition. The details of the flow structure near the corner are analyzed, investigating the competing effects of rarefaction and compressibility on the channel performances. The flow characteristics in terms of velocity profiles, slip velocity distribution along inner and outer wall, pressure, average Mach number along central line of the channel have been presented. The results showed that impact of the bend on the channel performances is smaller at high rarefaction levels. The behaviour of pressure and velocity away from the bend is similar to that of a straight microchannel; however, the asymmetry in the flow at the bend, with high velocities and high velocity gradients on its inner side, has a strong impact on wall slip velocities. The presence of a recirculation is detected on both the inner and outer walls of the corner for larger Reynolds. However, rarefaction may delay the onset of recirculation. It is also observed that the mass flux through a bend microchannel can even be slightly larger than that through a straight microchannel of the same length and subjected to the same pressure difference.


Author(s):  
Marc-Florian Uth ◽  
Alf Crüger ◽  
Heinz Herwig

In micro or nano flows a slip boundary condition is often needed to account for the special flow situation that occurs at this level of refinement. A common model used in the Finite Volume Method (FVM) is the Navier-Slip model which is based on the velocity gradient at the wall. It can be implemented very easily for a Navier-Stokes (NS) Solver. Instead of directly solving the Navier-Stokes equations, the Lattice-Boltzmann method (LBM) models the fluid on a particle basis. It models the streaming and interaction of particles statistically. The pressure and the velocity can be calculated at every time step from the current particle distribution functions. The resulting fields are solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations. Boundary conditions in LBM always not only have to define values for the macroscopic variables but also for the particle distribution function. Therefore a slip model cannot be implemented in the same way as in a FVM-NS solver. An additional problem is the structure of the grid. Curved boundaries or boundaries that are non-parallel to the grid have to be approximated by a stair-like step profile. While this is no problem for no-slip boundaries, any other velocity boundary condition such as a slip condition is difficult to implement. In this paper we will present two different implementations of slip boundary conditions for the Lattice-Boltzmann approach. One will be an implementation that takes advantage of the microscopic nature of the method as it works on a particle basis. The other one is based on the Navier-Slip model. We will compare their applicability for different amounts of slip and different shapes of walls relative to the numerical grid. We will also show what limits the slip rate and give an outlook of how this can be avoided.


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