Simulation of Long Microchannel Flow in Transitional Regime Using Lattice Boltzmann Method

Microscale flow simulation is considered in this paper for a microchannel flow geometry. Lattice Boltzmann Model (LBM) was used as the numerical method for flow simulation, in which an effective mean free path was used in relaxation time appeared in LBM. The effective mean-free-path makes it possible to investigate flow characteristics in transition flow regime, for which Knudsen number varies from 0.1 to 10. Such implementation does not change the computational efficiency of LBM significantly. Results are obtained for flow configuration in a long microchannel. The slip velocity was predicted in this flow configuration with good accuracy. Good correspondence with Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method was observed.