Bivelocity gas dynamics of micro-channel couette flow

The bivelocity theory is adopted in this paper to predict the characteristics of a monoatomic Maxwellian gas flow in a micro-channel geometry. Our analysis utilizes a full set of mechanically and thermodynamically consistent volume-diffusion hydrodynamic equations. It is argued that the bivelocity theory predicts, contrary to current investigations, a no-slip velocity at the wall in planar Couette flow for rarefied gas flows. The results indicate that the numerical predictions for the density, temperature, and velocity distributions are different from those previously obtained using Burnett equations. Suggestions for experimental verification, motivated by our numerical results, are also presented.