Rarefied Gas Flows Induced through a Pair of Parallel Meshes with Different Temperatures

A simple method to form micro-channels that induce a rarefied gas flow by the effect of the temperature field is proposed. A pair of parallel wire meshes, one is heated and the other is unheated, induces a gas flow through the pair of meshes in the direction from unheated mesh to heated mesh. Three test devices with different diameters, 1mm, 100 mu m, and 25 mu m, of the wire of the mesh, have been devised and the flow through the device is detected by a thin film or a small windmill for various pressures of the gas. The flow is observed in a range of the pressure where the mean free path of gas molecules is close to the scale of the mesh structure, e.g., the diameter of the wire. It is extended to a wider range of the pressure in the device using combined meshes consisting of coarser and finer mesh.