Measurements of the thermal creep flow through a single rectangular microchannel connected to two tanks maintained initially at the same pressure, but at different temperatures, are carried out for five noble gas species, over a large range of pressure and for two temperature differences between the tanks. The time-dependent pressure variations in both cold and hot tanks are investigated, and the temperature-driven (thermal creep) mass flow rate between two tanks is calculated from these data for the rarefaction parameter ranging from the transitional to slip flow regime. The measured mass flow rate is compared with the numerical solution of the S-model kinetic equation, and they show good agreement. A novel approximate expression to calculate the temperature-driven mass flow rate in the transitional and slip flow regimes is proposed. This expression provides results in good agreement with the measured values of the mass flow rate. In the slip flow regime, the thermal slip coefficient is calculated by employing the previously reported methodology, and the influence of the nature of the gas on this coefficient is investigated. The measured values of the thermal slip coefficient agree well with the values available in the literature, indicating that this coefficient is independent of the shape of a channel.

The heat flux between two coaxial cylinders was measured in the range from the free molecular to the early transitional flow regimes for extraction of the thermal accommodation coefficient using an approximate relation on the pressure dependence of the heat flux. The experimental coaxial cylinders' geometry has been traditionally implemented for the measurement of the thermal accommodation coefficient using the low-pressure method; however, the actual experimental setup was characterized by large temperature difference and large cylinders' radius ratio. Compared to the original low-pressure method, much higher pressure range was applied. In order to verify assumptions in the accommodation coefficient extraction, the heat flux under measurement conditions was simulated numerically by the nonlinear S-model kinetic equation. Very good agreement was found between the measured and the simulated heat flux. The proposed procedure of the thermal accommodation coefficient extraction was discussed in detail and verified. The temperature dependence of the thermal accommodation coefficient was also found.