Heat Transfer Between Two Plates

Carl-Ola Danielsson & Erik Birgersson

FaxénLaboratoriet
March 18, 2002

Abstract
Heat transfer between two parallel plates is studied for a rarefied gas via DSMC simulations. The Kn
number is varied so that we cover the range from the continuum to the free molecular limit. The collision
model is based on the variable hard sphere model for the DSMC. Phenomena such as temperature jump
and non-symmetrical velocity distributions are observed.

1 Introduction
Two plates are held at constant temperature T1 and T2 . The gap between the plates is filled with rarefied
Argon gas. The heat exchange in a gas between the two plates is studied, using the simulation program
λ
DSMC1. Comparison with the solutions for the extreme values of the Knudsen number, Kn = L ,where λ
is the mean free path, i.e. the continuum solution for low Kn and free molecular flow for high Knudsen
numbers, are made.

y
x

T1 T2
Figure 1. The geometry and coordinate system for the heat transfer considered in this paper.

2 Solution methods
2.1 Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC)
The simulations in this project were performed by using the code DSMC1.FOR. A good introduction to this
code is given in the book by Bird [1].
In the code there are a number of parameters that need to be set, such as boundary conditions and
number density of the gas. During our simulations we held the number density of the gas constant. The
Knutsen number was altered by changing the distance between the plates. Doing so we had to change
the number of real molecules represented by each computational molecule, in order to keep the number of
computational molecules constant.

1
 The gap between the plates was divided into 200 cells and each cell into 10 subcells. The time step was
choosen in such a way that the molecules needed at least 4 time steps to move through a cell and so that
at an average, more than 10 time steps elapsed between two collisions for one molecule. To minimize the
statistical error, a large number of samples were taken.

2.2 Boundary conditions

There are two types of boundary conditions for the Boltzman equation, the specular and diffusive reflection,
see figure 2. In a specular reflection, the normal velocity is reversed, the tangential velocity is retained and
the energy preserved.

a.) b.)

α α

Figure 2. a.) Specular reflection b.) Diffusive reflection.

Diffusive reflection is a more realistic boundary condition since it allows for transfer of both energy and
tangential momentum. It is only well defined for a large number of incoming molecules and the reflected
molecules are assumed to leave the surface distributed as a half Maxwellian with the temperature taken as
the temperature of the wall.

2.3 Continuum limit

The Chapman-Enskog method provides a solution to the Boltzman equation, in which the distribution
function is expressed in the form of a power series. From the solution of the Boltzmann equation using this
method it is possible to derive expressions for the coefficient of viscosity µ [1] and heat conduction κ. For a
variable hard sphere
3µCp
µ ∝ T ω, κ = , (1)
2
where T is the temperature, Cp is the heat capacity and ω = 1/2 + υ, where υ is an empirical parameter.
The DSMC code uses ω = 0.81.
In the continuum limit we solve µ ¶
d dT
κ = 0, (2)
dx dx
with a finite volume method.

2.4 Free molecular flow

At high Knudsen numbers the gas acts as if no collisions takes place between the molecules. The gas can then
be treated as being composed of two gases, each of them described by a half Maxwellian velocity distribution
given by the diffusive boundary conditions. Conservation of mass then requires that
p p
n1 T1 = n2 T2 , (3)

where n1 is the number density of the gas moving towards the surface with temperature T2 and vice versa.
The total number density of the gas is given by n = n1 + n2 , and the temperature by:

(n1 T1 + n2 T2 )
T = . (4)
n

2
The expression for the heat flux is given in Gombosi [3] as
r √
k γ+1 T1 T2
q = αnk √ √ (T2 − T1 ) (5)
2πm γ − 1 T1 + T2

3 Results and Discussion

• Temperature: The temperature profiles (∆T = 100) for different Kn numbers are depicted in figure 3.
We see that the continuum solution1 agrees with the DMSC solution for Kn = 10−2 . For Kn = 100,
we are close to the free molecular flow.
380

Continuum solution
360

Kn = 10-2
Kn = 1
340
Kn = 100
Kn = 10
T [K]

320

Free molecular flow

300

280

260
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
Cell [#]

Figure 3. The temperature profiles obtained from DSMC for Kn=10−2 ,1, 10 and 100.
The continuum solution and the free molecular solution are depicted as well.

With larger Kn numbers the temperature jump at the walls increases. If we look at a layer, with a
thickness of O(λ) adjacent to the wall, the molecules do not collide, hence we will have an average
temperature composed of the outgoing particles with the wall temperature and the incoming with
another temperature. The sum of these particles give rise to a local temperature which differs from
the wall temperature at increasing mean free paths, i.e. higher Kn numbers.
• Heat flux : The corresponding heat fluxes (∆T = 100) for the different Kn numbers are shown in figure
4.
-1.2
0
-1.4

-5 -1.6 Kn = 10-2 (DSMC)

Kn = 10-2
q [Wm-2]

-1.8

-10
-2

Continuum solution
-2.2
-15
-2.4
q [Wm -2]

-20 -38
-2.6
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
Cell [#]
-38.5
-25
Kn = 1
-39
Kn = 100 (DSMC)
-30
q [Wm-2]

-39.5

Kn = 10
-35 Kn = 100 -40
Free molecular flow

-40.5
-40
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
-41
Cell [#] 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
Cell [#]

Figure 4. The heat fluxes for the Kn numbers. The corresponding continuum
and free molecular fluxes for Kn=10−2 and Kn=100.
1 Note
that a Lennard-Jones potential was used for estimating the heat conduction, whereas the DSMC is based on a
VHS-model.

3
 The heat flux increases with the Kn number, since we decrease the distance between the plates to
obtain higher Kn numbers. The heat flux from the continuum solution is a good approximation to
the DSMC computed mean heat flux. At the free molecular limit, we have good agreement (< 1%)
between the mean heat flux from DSMC and the theoretical value.
• Velocity distributions: For high Kn number, see figure 5.b and d., the molecules do not collide with
each other. The velocity distribution will then be given by the sum of two half Maxwellians moving in
opposite directions. This is clearly visible when the temperature difference between the plates becomes
large.

800 a.) 800 b.)

600
600
400
400
200
200
0
c ´ [ms -1]

c ´y [ms -1]
0
-200
y

-200
-400
-400
-600
-600
-800
-800
-1000

-1000 -500 0 500 1000 -1000 -500 0 500 1000

c ´ [ms-1 ] c ´ [ms-1 ]
x x

c.) d.)
1500 2000

1500
1000

1000

500
500
c ´ [ms -1]

c ´ [ms -1]

0 0
y

-500
-500
-1000

-1000 -1500

-2000
-1500
-1500 -1000 -500 0 500 1000 1500 2000 -3000 -2500 -2000 -1500 -1000 -500 0 500 1000 1500 2000
c ´ [ms-1 ] c ´ [ms-1 ]
x x

Figure 5. a) Kn=10−2 , ∆T = 102 . Distribution looks symmetrical. b) Kn=102 , ∆T = 102 . Molecules moving with
negative Cx have slightly higer speed. c) Kn=10−2 , ∆T = 103 . Again for low Kn number the distribution looks
rather symmetrical. d) Kn=102 , ∆T = 103 . Two half Maxwellians clearly visible.

For low Kn numbers, see figure 5.a and c., the molecules collide with each other. This can be thought
of as a large number of local equilibriums, each characterized by its own Maxwellian distribution.
Summing all these together will result in a velocity distribution which is hard to distinguish from a
symmetrical one, but the fact that we have heat transfer from the hotter to the colder surface, tells us
that the velocity distribution can not be perfectly symmetric.

References
[1] G.A. Bird, Molecular Gas Dynamics and the Direct simulation of Gas and Flows, Oxford Science Publi-
cations, 1994
[2] R. B. Bird, Transport Phenomena, John Wiley & Sons, 2002
[3] T. I. Gombosi, Gaskinetic Theory, Cambridge University Press, 1994