A Study of Non-uniform Pressure Distribution in Vacuum Chamber during Dynamic Gas Flow

Abstract

Vacuum chambers have wide application for a variety of purposes such as material processing, vacuum gauge calibration, etc. As the dynamic pressure generated in such chamber is non-uniform, in many industrial as well as research processes, it is vital to know the non-uniform gas distribution with associated gas flow regimes and the ways of minimizing these pressure non-uniformities. In the present work, the behavior of gas flow in a vacuum chamber, during continuous gas flow, is described in the pressure range 0.1-133 Pa and the effect of baffle plate in minimizing the pressure non-uniformities is investigated. It was observed that maximum deviations in the pressure occur near the gas inlet point and that the effect of baffle plate in minimizing the pressure non-uniformities is more obvious in the transitional flow regime.