Article
Article
Rarefied gas flow
Article By:
Dayton, Benjamin B. Consulting Physicist, East Flatrock, North Carolina.
Last reviewed:January 2020
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.390500
Flow of gases much below standard atmospheric pressure, sometimes called low-pressure gas flow. The flow may be confined to pipes between a chamber or vessel to be evacuated and a pump, or it may be the beam of molecules issuing from an orifice into a large evacuated chamber or the plume of exhaust gases from a rocket launched into the upper atmosphere, for example. The flow velocity is measured with respect to a fixed boundary such as the wall of a pipe, the surface of a rocket or jet plane, or a model in a wind tunnel. See also: Fluid mechanics; Gas; Molecular beams; Pipe flow; Vacuum pump; Wind tunnel
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