Radiometric force on a sphere in a rarefied gas based on the Cercignani–Lampis model of gas–surface interaction

The radiometric force on a sphere due to its thermal polarization in a rarefied gas flow being in equilibrium is investigated on the basis of a kinetic model to the linearized Boltzmann equation. The scattering kernel proposed by Cercignani and Lampis to model the gas–surface interaction using two accommodation coefficients, namely, the tangential momentum accommodation coefficient and the normal energy accommodation coefficient, is employed as the boundary condition. The radiometric force on the sphere, as well as the flow field of the gas around it, is calculated in a wide range of the gas rarefaction, defined as the ratio of the sphere radius to an equivalent free path of gaseous particles, covering the free molecular, transition, and continuum regimes. The discrete velocity method is employed to solve the kinetic equation numerically. The calculations are carried out for values of accommodation coefficients considering most situations encountered in practice. To confirm the reliability of the calculations, the reciprocity relation between the cross phenomena is verified numerically within a numerical error of 0.1%. The temperature drop between two diametrically opposite points of the spherical surface in the direction of the gas flow stream, which characterizes the thermal polarization effect, is compared to experimental data for a spherical particle of Pyrex glass immersed in helium and argon gases.