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In
fluid dynamics In physics, physical chemistry and engineering, fluid dynamics is a subdiscipline of fluid mechanics that describes the flow of fluids – liquids and gases. It has several subdisciplines, including (the study of air and other gases in motion ...
, the Knudsen equation is used to describe how
gas Gas is a state of matter that has neither a fixed volume nor a fixed shape and is a compressible fluid. A ''pure gas'' is made up of individual atoms (e.g. a noble gas like neon) or molecules of either a single type of atom ( elements such as ...
flows through a tube in
free molecular flow Free molecular flow describes the fluid dynamics of gas where the mean free path of the molecules is larger than the size of the chamber or of the object under test. For tubes/objects of the size of several cm, this means pressures well below 10− ...
. When the
mean free path In physics, mean free path is the average distance over which a moving particle (such as an atom, a molecule, or a photon) travels before substantially changing its direction or energy (or, in a specific context, other properties), typically as a ...
of the
molecule A molecule is a group of two or more atoms that are held together by Force, attractive forces known as chemical bonds; depending on context, the term may or may not include ions that satisfy this criterion. In quantum physics, organic chemi ...
s in the gas is larger than or equal to the diameter of the
tube Tube or tubes may refer to: * ''Tube'' (2003 film), a 2003 Korean film * "Tubes" (Peter Dale), performer on the Soccer AM television show * Tube (band), a Japanese rock band * Tube & Berger, the alias of dance/electronica producers Arndt Rör ...
, the molecules will interact more often with the walls of the tube than with each other. For typical tube dimensions, this occurs only in high or ultrahigh vacuum. The equation was developed by Martin Hans Christian Knudsen (1871–1949), a Danish physicist who taught and conducted research at the
Technical University of Denmark The Technical University of Denmark (), often simply referred to as DTU, is a polytechnic university and school of engineering. It was founded in 1829 at the initiative of Hans Christian Ørsted as Denmark's first polytechnic, and it is today ran ...
.


Cylindrical tube

For a cylindrical tube, the Knudsen equation is: :q = \frac16 \sqrt \Delta P \frac, where: For nitrogen (or air) at room temperature, the conductivity C (in liters per second) of a tube can be calculated from this equation: :\frac \approx 12 \, \frac


References

{{Reflist Fluid dynamics