Mass flow rate prediction of temperature-driven gas flows through divergence micro/nanochannels

This paper presents an investigation of the mass flow rate ofrarefied gaseous flow in divergent micro/nano channelscompared with the results of straight channels. Directsimulation Monte-Carlo (DSMC) method is used to solverarefied flow over a broad range of Knudsen numberaccurately. We observed that the mass flow rate increaseswith the divergence angle. The effect of channel aspect ratio(AR) is not crucial on the mass flow rate in lower Knudsennumbers. However, the mass flow rate increases with thedivergence angle when Knudsen number is high. We showthat enhanced thermal creep effect is the main source of themass flow rate increase if the wall temperature gradient isincreased.