ANALYSIS OF KNUDSEN-MINIMA IN CONVERGING

AND DIVERGING MICROCHANNELS

1 INTRODUCTION
Microfluidics has been a growing area of research in recent years with the major focus of
applying it to areas pertaining to the use of micro-electro-mechanical systems in healthcare,
testing, semiconductors, etc. While dealing with microfluidics, understanding the model and
laws governing the flow in microchannels becomes especially important. On fundamental levels
such as flow over the wall, the conditions and assumptions such as no-slip become erroneous to
assume in microchannels. Gas flows in very low-pressure conditions are referred to as rarefied
gas flow.
The Phenomenon of Knudsen minima is one such condition that occurs when we move deep into
the microchannel levels. Its behaviour and occurrence become of utmost importance to analyse
fluid flow at such levels. The Knudsen minima is an indicator of the failure of the continuum
hypothesis. The following project attempts to try and understand the concept and to test if the
phenomenon can be reproduced by on a CFD simulation software (ANSYS-FLUENT) in spite of
the reason of failure of continuum. The attempt is made by varying the properties of the same
fluid as Knudsen number increases. The study is expected to help the design choices for
numerous micro-devices such as breath analyser, micro-thruster, micro-nozzle, and safety micro-
devices.

2 LITERATURE SURVEY

While studying the gas flow in a microchannel, the Knudsen number becomes an important
factor. Based on the Knudsen number, the low-pressure in microchannel geometry can be
divided into four regimes. While considering flow in a microchannel, gas slipping occurs at the
interface which is neglected in conventional length scales.
When mean free path is greater than 0.001*D approximately, the profile is affected by the
boundary layer effects and the velocity close to the wall does not approach zero. This
phenomenon is referred to as Slip Flow.  When the mean free path becomes equal to and greater
than pipe diameter (Kn>=1), rate of gas collision increases, and gas molecules can either pass
through the pipe without wall striking or scatter randomly back and forth. This type of flow is
referred to as a free molecule flow. The transition region (0.01<Kn<1) between laminar flow and
molecular flow is referred to as the Knudsen regime. A significant change in density happens in
this region and becomes important characteristic to be considered called rarefaction and
compression effects.

The Knudsen paradox has been observed in experiments of channel flow with varying channel
width or equivalently different pressures. If the normalized mass flux through the channel is
plotted over the Knudsen number based on the channel width a distinct minimum is
observed .This is a paradoxical behavior because, based on the Navier-Stokes equations, one
would expect the mass flux to decrease with increasing the Knudsen number. The minimum can
be understood intuitively by considering the two extreme cases of very small and very large
Knudsen number. For very large Knudsen number, the viscosity vanishes and a fully developed
steady state channel flow shows infinite flux. On the other hand, the particles stop interacting for
small Knudsen numbers. Because of the constant acceleration due to the external force, the
steady state again will show infinite flux. This occurrence of minima is referred to as the
Knudsen minima. In short it ca be referred to the decrease of the mass-flow rate of a gas with
increasing Knudsen number Kn , reaching a minimum at Kn O(1) and increasing logarithmically
as Kn increases. It should be noted that the above phenomenon falls in the region of transitional
region of the Knudsen number range. Experimental results have shown that these minima are
found to exist between Kn=0.7 and 1[2] for nitrogen, argon and oxygen. The Knudsen minima is
an indicator of the failure of continuum hypothesis as we move into microchannel flows. As the
intermolecular forces weaken, change in the resulting properties result in the increase of the mass
flow rate. It should be noted that such phenomenon could easily be simulated by Direct
Simulation Monte Carlo Method(DSMC) which is the statistical approach to simulate molecular
collisions .The following project attempts to recreate such phenomenon using a continuum valid
software such as ANSYS FLUENT by varying the properties that undergo change and those for
which experimental data exist to validate the kind of change that occurs and those which are
available in ANYS FLUENT. These include changes in viscosity and Tangential momentum
accommodation coefficient (TMAC).

3 PROBLEM OBJECTIVE

Experimental data plays a very important role in trying to recreate such a phenomenon in a
continuum-based software. This Project works on the data published by [2]and [] who have
conducted experiments on Argon, Nitrogen and Oxygen and been able to derive reliable
information about the behaviour of viscosity and TMAC changes that occur in the Knudsen
value range of 0.1 to 1.2 .Knudsen Minima have been primarily noted in varying cryosections ,
hence varying cross sections will be used for the simulations geometries are used to recreate the
Knudsen Minima concept . One is a custom-made converging nozzle and the other is using the
exact geometry on which experimental evaluation was done. Simulations will be carried out by
varying pressures across the inlet and outlet. The pressures for each of the gases will be
calculated based on the formula derived from experimental data. Also, it should be noted that the
pressure ration will be kept at 7 throughout all simulations, The mean pressure was calculated
using

μ √ πRT /2
Pmean=
Knm D h

µ - dynamic viscosity of gas at 300K; Dh – Mean hydraulic diameter;

R – Gas constant in KJ/Kg-K;
All the unknowns are either geometrical or gas properties with an initial known Knudsen number
for analysis.
Pmin+ Pmax
Pmean =
2
There could various combinations to know Pmin and Pmax with the known Pmean. So, in this analysis
a pressure ratio of ‘7’ is maintained.
 Pmax
Π= =7
Pmin

ANSYS FLUENT has in built functions to incorporate first order slip. But since this is
insufficient to account for Knudsen minima. The first variation of properties is done to TMAC
values. In this analysis, the relation used between the tangential momentum accommodation
coefficient and Knudsen number considers second order accuracy, and simulations for all gases
were done in transition regime. The occurrence of mass flux minima and rise in it would
represent the Knudsen minima for each gas considered, thereafter continuum hypothesis could
become invalid.

Where the TMAC values calculated based on second order slip based on experimental data was
condensed to

σ = 1 – log (1 + Kn0.7)
To account for the variation of Viscosity, experimental data of Vasilis K. Michalis [] was used.
Viscosity variations is accounted to one of the major reasons for Knudsen minima occurrence.
The Formula that was used to calculate the variation of viscosity with Kn is
1
μe =μ o
1+ aKn
Where μo is the bulk viscosity and a is a parameter which varies based on Knudsen number.
For the lack of better understanding of this parameter variation experimentally, the simulations
will be run based on a=2 which is the approximation done by Sutherland []
The objective is to try and recreate Knudsen minima by employing simulations by varying the
Pressures, Viscosity and TMAC values that were obtained experimentally.

4 NUMERICAL FORMULATION

GEOMETRY
The geometry is done in ANSYS Space claim. A converging type micro-channel is considered for
analysis. The same geometry can be used as a diverging type just by interchanging the boundary
conditions at inlet and outlet. The solid geometry in fig 2, is the fluid flowing inside the microchannel.
Table – 1, gives information about the geometrical parameters.
 Wmax Wmin

MICRO-CHANNEL DIMENSIONS
Fig – 1, 2D outline of micro-channel
Minimum width (Wmin) 20µm
Table – 1
Maximum width (Wmax) 90µm
Thickness 60µm
Length 5000µm
Taper angle 0.802 degrees

Fig – 2, Fluid inside micro-channel for analysis

MESH
Number of nodes = 32421
Number of elements = 30000

4 SETUP AND EQUATIONS USED

The simulation is performed for three different gases Nitrogen, Oxygen, Argon. This is performed under
low pressures with energy equation kept “ON” because the simulation is dealt with high Knudsen number
flows. The low-pressure slip condition is activated as slip velocities become important in microscale
analysis.
According to Vadiraj Hemadri and others, Knudsen minima happened to occur approximately between
0.7 and 1 for high pressure ratio flows for a diverging microchannel experimentally with the same gases
which are considered in this analysis. So, to conduct the simulation is to fix a Knudsen number to the
flow and get the corresponding tangential momentum accommodation coefficient (TMAC, σ) from the
relation given for non-monoatomic gases[2],
The setup at both ends are pressure boundary conditions where the mean pressure (P mean) can be calculated
with the following relation[1],

ΠRT
Kn =
µ
√
2
Pmean D h

Table – 2

Quantity Gases
Nitrogen Oxygen Argon
Knudsen range
Pmean
Pmin (Overall)
Pmax (Overall)
Pressure ratio (Π) 7 7 7
5 SIMULATION RESULTS

OBSERVATIONS

6 CONCLUSION
A variable cross-section type microchannel is considered for analysis. The simulations are performed for
three different gases by considering second order slip condition. ==??

7 REFERENCES
1. Vadiraj Hemadri, “Occurrence of Knudsen Minima in Diverging Microchannels”, Proceedings of
29th International symposium on Rarefied Gas Dynamics, 2014.
2. Amit Agrawal, “A Comprehensive Review on Gas Flow in Microchannels”, International Journal of
Micro-Nano Scale Transport, 2011