Development of micro gas actuator for analyzing gas mixture

In this study, a computational technique is used to investigate the ability of a new Micro Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) gas actuator Microscale In-plane Knudsen Radiometric Actuator (MIKRA) for detecting and sensing gas mixture. In this actuator, the temperature dierence of two arms in a rectangular domain in a rareed condition induces a Knudsen force which is associated with physical properties of the gas. Both 2D and 3D approaches were applied to simulating the ow inside the model. In order to dene the ow feature of low-pressure gas inside the micro gas actuator, a high-order equation of Boltzmann should be solved to attain reliable results. Since the domain of this micro gas is non-equilibrium, Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method was applied to the simulation of the model. According to obtained results, the three-dimensional model achieved more reliable results and the existence of a gap for the three-dimensional model clearly demonstrated the impact of this parameter on the eective Knudsen force.