This paper investigates anti-Fourier heat transfer phenomenon in a rarefied gas confined within a lid-driven cavity using a novel flow decomposition technique in the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method proposed by Stefanov and co-workers. An isothermal cavity with different degrees of flow rarefaction from near continuum to mid transition regimes was considered to investigate cold-to-hot heat transfer from ballistic/collision flow decomposition viewpoint. A new cold-to-hot heat transfer indicator in the form of a scalar product of normalized heat flow vector and normalized temperature gradient vector has been introduced for the overall, ballistic and collision parts of these vectors. Using the new indicator, contributions of ballistic and collision flow parts to temperature and heat flux components was investigated with a specific emphasis on the cold-to-hot heat transfer phenomenon. We demonstrated that both ballistic and collision flow parts contribute to the occurrence of cold-to-hot heat transfer. However, it was found out that considered separately both ballistic and collision parts of heat transfer, when related to corresponding ballistic and collision temperature fields, they are ever hot-to-cold for all degrees of flow rarefaction. Thus, cold-to-hot heat transfer is a result of a subtle interplay between ballistic and collision parts in the slip and transition Knudsen regimes.

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