Simulation of Heat Transfer Across Rarefied Gas in Annular and Planar Geometries: Comparison of Navier-Stokes, S-Model and DSMC Methods Results

Steady state heat transfer through a rarefied gas confined between two parallel plates or two coaxial cylinders maintained at different temperatures is investigated using the nonlinear S-model kinetic equation and the DSMC technique for a large range of gas rarefaction. The profiles of heat flux, density and temperature are reported for different values of gas rarefaction parameter and given values of temperature and aspect ratios. In the slip regime the results of the S-model and DSMC technique are compared to the simulations performed using the Lin and Willis temperature jump boundary conditions at the at the solid surface implemented in ANSYS/Fluent CFD simulations. The analytical expressions for density number, temperature and heat flux in the free molecular regimes are obtained for both parallel plates and coaxial cylinders geometries with hot and cold surfaces having different values of the thermal accommodation coefficient. The solutions of these analytical expressions are compared to the S-model kinetic equation and DSMC technique results in the free molecular regime.