Thermal creep of a rarefied gas on the basis of non-linear Korteweg-theory (Q2255378)

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of Korteweg's theory of capillarity in predicting the steady motion of a rarefied gas where the motion is induced by a temperature gradient on the boundary of the flow domain. The study of thermal transpiration, more commonly called thermal creep, is accomplished by use of Korteweg's theory of capillarity. Incorporation of this theory into the balance laws of continuum mechanics allows resolution of boundary value problems via solutions to systems of ordinary differential equations. The problem was originally considered by \textit{J. C. Maxwell} in his classic paper [Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. 170, 231--256 (1879; JFM 11.0777.01)]. In that paper Maxwell derived what is now called the Burnett higher order contribution to the Cauchy stress, but was not able to solve his newly derived system of partial differential equations. In this paper the authors note that a more appropriate higher order contribution to the Cauchy stress follows from \textit{D. J. Korteweg}'s theory [Arch. Néerl. (2) 6, 1--24 (1901; JFM 32.0756.02)]. The appropriateness of Korteweg's theory is based on the exact summation of the Chapman-Enskog expansion given by Gorban and Karlin. The resulting balance laws are solved exactly, qualitatively, and numerically and the results are qualitatively similar to the numerical and exact results given by \textit{T. Ohwada} et al. [Phys. Fluids, A 1, No. 12, 2042--2049 (1989; Zbl 0696.76092); Phys. Fluids, A 1, No. 9, 1588--1599 (1989; Zbl 0695.76032)], \textit{S. K. Loyalka} et al. [Phys. Fluids 10, 1833--1839 (1967; Zbl 0204.27901); Phys. Fluids, A 1, No. 3, 612--614 (1989; Zbl 0659.76085); Phys. Fluids 18, 1094--1099 (1975; Zbl 0315.76037)] and \textit{H. Struchtrup} and \textit{P. Taheri} [IMA J. Appl. Math. 76, No. 5, 672--697 (2011; Zbl 1276.76074)].