Size effect on gas flow in micro nozzles

The performance of a micro propulsion system is determined primarily by the performance of the micro nozzles. A rectangular cross-section convergent–divergent micro nozzle, with a throat width of 20 µm and an expansion area ratio of 1.7, is fabricated and studied using experiment and numerical simulation. Experiments are conducted to measure the mass flow rates and pressure distributions near the nozzle's throat under various outlet pressures. The results of the numerical simulations accord with the experimental data. Moreover, differences between the micro scale flow and the conventional scale flow are discovered from the simulation results. The Mach number near the downstream position of the micro nozzle's throat is lower than that in the conventional nozzle. In the divergent region of the micro nozzle, there is a supersonic area instead of the shock wave that usually occurs in the conventional scale nozzles. The results of the numerical simulation also show that the position of the sonic point moves away from the throat towards the outlet with the decrease in the size of the nozzle. This particular behavior is attributed to the higher viscous dissipation in micro nozzles as compared to that in the conventional scale nozzles.