Knudsen Pumping: Can Heat Alone Pump Gas Through a Microtube?
Updated: 6 hours ago
Authors: SciViD Editorial* (demonstration item)
*Affiliation: SciViD, 4101 Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
EXAMPLE ITEM · PRELIMINARY · NOT PEER REVIEWED · NUMERICAL RESULTS ONLY · AI-ASSISTED
Type: Computational or modelling study · Collection: Micro- and Nanotechnology
Interactive lab: https://knudsen-lab.gainscholar.workers.dev
Report a concern: editor@scivid.net
Abstract
Thermal transpiration, the flow of a rarefied gas from cold to hot along a wall that carries a temperature gradient, allows gas to be pumped without moving parts. This article describes the Knudsen Tube Lab, an interactive three-dimensional virtual laboratory that replays the stored results of a numerical study asking whether a single rolled-up microtube with a nanometer-thick wall could act as a Knudsen pump. The lab presents four groups of results. The first is a set of transport coefficients from the linearized S-model kinetic equation over the rarefaction range 0 ≤ δ ≤ 100, which agrees with published discrete-ordinates solutions to within 2 × 10⁻⁶. The second is a set of steady wall-temperature fields for five candidate tube geometries and four wall cases, with calculated heating budgets of about 0.2–110 µW. The third is a validated closed-reservoir transient in which a 30 K temperature difference along a 200 µm tube establishes a pressure difference of about 50 Pa at a mean pressure of about 2.4 kPa. The fourth is a set of force estimates for the candidates, which rest on a simplified model. The finite-tube correction, the sign of the axial force and any flight trajectory remain unresolved. Every value in the lab is traceable to a source file and carries a status label, so that validated results, simplified estimates and conceptual scenarios remain clearly separated.
Article information
IDENTIFIER: SciViD-VP.2026.0001. This is a SciViD internal identifier, not a DOI.
VERSION HISTORY: version 1, posted Oct 21, 2026. REVISE STATUS: preliminary; not peer reviewed. Licence: [CC BY 4.0]
AI USE: Code, data processing and drafting were assisted by AI tools; all values were checked against the source files by the editors.
CITE AS: SciViD Editorial. Can heat alone pump gas through a microtube? A virtual lab for Knudsen pumping in rolled-up microtubes. SciViD Video Preprint SciViD-VP.2026.0001, version 1 (2026). https://www.scivid.ai/preprint/vp-2026-0001. Preliminary, not peer reviewed. The full typeset preprint, with the interactive lab as Figure, follows below.
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