Kinetic Description of Cylindrical Heat Conduction in a Polyatomic Gas

Abstract
A kinetic description has been obtained for a polyatomic gas between concentric cylinders maintained at different temperatures. Knudsen iteration on a polyatomic kinetic model equation has been employed to obtain first collision corrections to the free molecular distribution function. It is assumed that the temperature difference between the cylinders is small. The heat transfer vector obtained from this theory has been compared with the results of Lees' moment method to obtain an estimate of the range of Knudsen number for which the theory should be valid.