Oscillatory Couette flow at arbitrary oscillation frequency over the whole range of the Knudsen number

The oscillatory Couette flow is important for further advancement of microengineering. In practice the size of the microfluidics can be so small that it can be compared with the molecular mean free path. Moreover, the oscillation frequency can be close to that of the intermolecular collisions. Under such conditions the problem must be solved on the kinetic level. In the present work, the oscillatory Couette flow is considered on the basis of the non-stationary kinetic equation. The solution to the problem is determined by two parameters: the Knudsen number and the ratio of collision frequency to oscillation frequency. The kinetic equation is solved by the discrete velocity method over the wide range of both parameters.