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In physics, a characteristic length is an important dimension that defines the scale of a physical system. Often, such a length is used as an input to a formula in order to predict some characteristics of the system, and it is usually required by the construction of a dimensionless quantity, in the general framework of dimensional analysis and in particular applications such as fluid mechanics.
The Knudsen number is a dimensionless number defined as =, where = mean free path [L 1], = representative physical length scale [L 1].. The representative length scale considered, , may correspond to various physical traits of a system, but most commonly relates to a gap length over which thermal transport or mass transport occurs through a gas phase.
where N is the number of particles in the system, is the number density, () is the pair potential. The pressure of the system can also be calculated by relating the 2nd virial coefficient to (). The pressure can be calculated as follows: [6]
Dimensionless numbers (or characteristic numbers) have an important role in analyzing the behavior of fluids and their flow as well as in other transport phenomena. [1] They include the Reynolds and the Mach numbers, which describe as ratios the relative magnitude of fluid and physical system characteristics, such as density, viscosity, speed of sound, and flow speed.
In geometry, a spherical shell is a generalization of an annulus to three dimensions. It is the region of a ball between two concentric spheres of differing radii. [1]
The hydraulic diameter, D H, is a commonly used term when handling flow in non-circular tubes and channels. Using this term, one can calculate many things in the same way as for a round tube. When the cross-section is uniform along the tube or channel length, it is defined as [1] [2] =, where
The kinetic diameter is not the same as atomic diameter defined in terms of the size of the atom's electron shell, which is generally a lot smaller, depending on the exact definition used. Rather, it is the size of the sphere of influence that can lead to a scattering event. [1] Kinetic diameter is related to the mean free path of molecules in ...
Note that since the particles in the ideal gas are non-interacting, the probability of finding a particle at a certain distance from another particle is the same as the probability of finding a particle at the same distance from any other point; we shall use the center of the sphere.