A rarefied gas flow induced by a temperature field: Numerical analysis of the flow between two coaxial elliptic cylinders with different uniform temperatures

A steady flow of a rarefied gas induced by a temperature field is investigated, on the basis of kinetic theory, for the case where the temperature of each boundary is uniform (i.e., where the flow caused by the nonuniformity of the boundary temperature, such as the thermal transpiration flow, vanishes). More specifically, a rarefied gas confined in the gap between two coaxial elliptic cylinders at rest with different uniform temperatures is considered, and the steady gas flow induced in the gap is analyzed numerically by the direct simulation Monte Carlo method for a wide range of the Knudsen number. The flow patterns, together with the density and temperature fields, are obtained, and the features of the flow are clarified