Temperature distribution in the force-driven poiseuille gas flow by molecular dynamics

Abstract

The thermal behavior of the force-driven compressible Poiseuille gas flow is studied by molecular dynamics (MD) simulation method. This type of flow situation occurs in the cooling system of MEMS/NEMS devices and hence the properties of Poiseuille gas flow become significant, especially the thermal behavior. The peculiar behavior of the force-driven Poiseuille gas flow, local minimum at the center in the temperature profile, is investigated in detail. Emphasis is placed on variations of the temperature distribution for different Knudsen numbers. Previously, the central temperature minimum and other flow peculiarities have been described by a non-classical non-Fourier theory based on nonlinear coupled constitutive relations. The main goal of this study is to investigate the thermal behavior of the force-driven Poiseuille gas flow using molecular dynamics simulations and to compare the results with that of non-classical non-Fourier theory. The MD results in general show agreement with the data from the non-classical hydrodynamic theory, which confirms the validity of MD method in analyzing the micro/nano gas flows including thermal behaviors.