Velocity inversion of micro cylindrical Couette flow: A lattice Boltzmann study

In this work the micro gas flow between two concentric cylinders is investigated by a lattice Boltzmann equation (LBE) model with multiple relaxation times. A local kinetic boundary condition is proposed for the LBE to model the gas–wall interaction. Numerical simulations are conducted to examine the tangential velocity distribution under different flow conditions. It is shown that the proposed LBE can capture the velocity inversion phenomenon successfully. Comparisons with the Navier–Stokes solutions and DSMC results are also made and it is shown that the LBE yields better predictions.