Oscillatory Gas Flow in a Circular Nanotube

ABSTRACT

Gas flow through nanoscale conduits shows distinctly different physics compared to flow at the macroscale. One of the first manifestations of this is the appearance of wall slip. Here we consider the oscillatory flow of an incompressible Newtonian gas through a circular nanotube, with first order wall slip due to rarefaction. It was found that the major effect of wall slip at lower oscillation frequencies is to alter the instantaneous velocity profiles from Poiseuille-like to more plug-like, with an overall enhancement to the fluid velocity magnitude. However, at higher frequencies the enhancement to velocity magnitude due to wall slip is greatly diminished, and rarefaction introduces a region of backflow near the centerline of the nanotube. These flow characteristics may have important implications for the design of various practical applications of unsteady gas flow through nanoscale conduits, from fuel cell membranes to gas-powered nanomachines constructed from carbon nanotubes.