Impacts of molecular characteristics on induced Knudsen force in the micro gas sensor

Abstract

The development of the micro-gas sensor for the pressure measurement of the different gas species in the low-pressure domain is an important phenomenon. This paper has investigated the importance of molecular characteristics of the eight different gas species in various pressure domains. Impacts of molecular weight, molecular diameter and viscosity of the selected eight gas species on the induced Knudsen force have been analyzed. This study has employed Direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) results of simulations of the micro-gas sensors for the evaluation of the micro-sensor performance in different gas species. Our investigation shows that the influence of molecular diameter change in the high-pressure domain would result in higher significant Knudsen force change. Knudsen force is also reduced when the value of the gas viscosity is increased.