Demonstration of a rarefied gas flow induced near the edge of a uniformly heated plate

A new type of a rarefied gas flow, which was found numerically by the research group of the first author, is demonstrated by a simple experiment. It is a steady flow induced by the edge effect of a uniformly heated plate. The experiment is carried out in a standard bell jar, and small windmills are used to detect flows. The flow found by the numerical computation is observed. The cause of the flow is discussed and attributed to the edge effect of the heated plate.