Computational Investigation of Micro Bacward-Facing Step Duct Flow in Slip Regime

Abstract

A comprehensive computational analysis is performed to investigate the nature of rarefied gas flow through a backward-facing step duct. A characteristic-based split Navier-Stokes FEM solver is used for the simulations of the flows found in slip regime. The second-order slip-velocity and temperature-jump boundary conditions of Beskok and Karniadakis are applied on the duct walls. Changing flow and heat transfer behavior of the flow due to the varying conditions characterized with non-dimensional parameters are presented and discussed in this article.

KEY WORDS:

• microflows
• characteristic-based-split
• finite element method
• step duct