Inverted velocity profile in the cylindrical Couette flow of a rarefied gas.

The cylindrical Couette flow of a rarefied gas is investigated, under the diffuse-specular reflection condition of Maxwell's type on the cylinders, in the case where the inner cylinder is rotating whereas the outer cylinder is at rest. The inverted velocity profile for small accommodation coefficients, pointed out by Tibbs, Baras, and Garcia [Phys. Rev. E 56, 2282 (1997)] on the basis of a Monte Carlo simulation, is investigated extensively by means of a systematic asymptotic analysis for small Knudsen numbers as well as the direct numerical analysis of the Boltzmann equation, and the parameter range in which the phenomenon appears is clarified.