Numerical Investigations of Rarefied Gas Flows Using the Continuum Description by the CIP Method

Rarefied gas flows in the slip regime are investigated by the CIP method. The two-dimensional Couette/Poiseuille flows and two/three-dimensional rid-driven cavity flows are calculated using the Navier-Stokes (N-S) equation with the Maxwell's velocity slip boundary condition for various Knudsen numbers and accommodation coefficients. Numerical solutions show that the N-S equation with the slip boundary can give comparable solutions to analytical solutions and kinetic-type approaches. The continuum model is sufficiently applicable to the slip flow regime on the range of Knudsen numbers of some typical MEMS as 10-3 < Kn < 10-1 .