Dresden 2006 – scientific programme

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DY: Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 46: Poster

DY 46.92: Poster

Thursday, March 30, 2006, 16:00–18:00, P1

Gas Flow through Nanopores: An Access to Gas Transport at Huge Knudsen Numbers — •Simon Grüner, Klaus Knorr, and Patrick Huber — Technische Physik, Universität des Saarlandes, 66123 Saarbrücken, Germany

We present helium gas flow experiments on a silicon membrane which is permeated by a bundle of parallel, tubular channels of 10 nanometer diameter. Such a membrane geometry allows us to study gas flows for Knudsen numbers, Kn, over four orders of magnitude, from 1-10000 (Kn refers to the ratio of the mean free path to the tube diameter). Already at Kn approx 0.1 a breakdown of continuum-like behavior is expected and, indeed, the helium flow in our system disagrees with the Hagen-Poiseuille prediction. In fact, our observations rather indicate a Knudsen diffusion-like gas transport.