Non-ideal gas dynamics under confinement: rarefaction effect, dense effect and molecular interaction

TL;DR

This study investigates non-ideal gas dynamics under confinement, highlighting the effects of molecular interactions, rarefaction, and density inhomogeneity on flow behavior using kinetic models.

Contribution

It compares ideal, hard-sphere, and real gas models under confinement, revealing the influence of molecular interactions and confinement on flow phenomena and flow rate predictions.

Findings

Knudsen minimum appears for ideal gas.

Knudsen maximum and minimum occur for real gases under certain conditions.

Flow behavior approaches Boltzmann predictions as channel width increases.

Abstract

The effects of volume exclusion and long-range intermolecular attraction are investigated by the simplified kinetic model for surface-confined inhomogeneous fluids. Gas dynamics of the ideal gas, the hard-sphere fluid and the real gas are simulated by the Boltzmann equation, the Enskog equation and the simple kinetic equation, respectively. Only the Knudsen minimum appears for the ideal gas, while both the Knudsen minimum and the Knudsen maximum occur for the hard-sphere fluid and the real gas under certain confinements, beyond which the maximum and minimum may disappear. The Boltzmann equation and the Enskog equation overestimates and underestimates the mass flow rate of the real gas dynamics under confinement, respectively, where the volume exclusion and the long-range intermolecular attractive potential among molecules are not ignorable. With the increase of the channel width, gas dynamics of the hard-sphere fluid and the real gas tends to the Boltzmann prediction gradually. The density inhomogeneity, which hinders the flow under confinement, is more obvious when the solid fraction is larger. The anomalous slip occurs for real gas under constant confinement. The flow at a smaller Knudsen number (larger solid fraction or channel width) contributes more practical amount of mass transfer, although the rarefaction effects is more prominent at larger Knudsen numbers. The temperature has no effect on density and velocity profiles of the ideal gas and the hard-sphere fluid, but the energy parameter among the real gas molecules decreases with the increasing temperature and the real gas dynamics tends to the hard-sphere ones consequently.