Gas Separation Between Asymmetrically Structured Walls

Here, flow in the gap between periodically structuredsurfaces is studied when the reflection symmetry along thechannel axis is broken. A series of triangular fins withalternating specular and diffuse walls are placed on the coldbottom wall while the top wall is straight and kept at ahigher temperature. The flow induction mechanism in thisgeometry is shown to be the same as the Crookesradiometer process. Here, we consider a mixture of twomolecules and focus on the gas separation performance ofthe pump. Direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC)simulations are performed to investigate separationperformance over a broad range of Knudsen numbers. Oursimulation results reveal that the proposed geometry couldefficiently separate light and heavy gas particles.

Keywords:

Thermally driven flow , DSMC , Particleseparation , Radiometric flow