Nonideal gas flow and heat transfer in micro- and nanochannels using the direct simulation Monte Carlo method.

Subsonic nonideal gas flow and heat transfer in micro- and nanochannels for different Knudsen numbers are investigated numerically using the direct simulation Monte Carlo method modified with a consistent Boltzmann algorithm. The van der Waals equation is used as the equation of state. The collision rate is also modified based on the Enskog theory for dense gas. It is shown that the nonideal gas effect becomes significant when the gas becomes so dense that the ideal gas assumption breaks down. The results also show that the nonideal gas effect is dependent not only on the gas density, but also on the channel size. A higher gas density and a smaller channel size lead to a more significant nonideal gas effect. The nonideal gas effect also causes lower skin friction coefficients and different heat transfer flux distributions at the wall surface. The simulations presented in this work are helpful for a better understanding of micro- and nanoscale gas flows.