Approximate kinetic equations in rarefied gas theory

Abstract

The fundamental kinetic equation of gas theory, the Boltzniann equation, is a complex integrodiffcrential equation. The difficulties associated with its solution are the result not only of the large number of independent variables, seven in the general case, but also of the very complicated structure of the collision integral. However, for the mechanics of rarefied gases the primary interest lies not in the distribution function itself, which satisfies the Boltzmann equation, but rather in its first few moments, i.e., the averaged characteristics. This circumstance suggests the possibility of obtaining the averaged quantities by a simpler way than the direct method of direct solution of the Boltzmann equation with subsequent calculation of the integrals. It is well known that if a distribution function satisfies the Boltzmann equation, then its moments satisfy an infinite system of moment equations. Consequently, if we wish to obtain with satisfactory accuracy some number of first moments, then we must require that these moments satisfy the exact system of moment equations. However, this does not mean that to determine the moments of interest to us we must solve this system, particularly since the system of moment equations is not closed. The closure of the system by specifying the form of the distribution function (method of moments) can be considered only as a rough approximate method of solving problems. First, in this case it is not possible to satisfy all the equations and we must limit ourselves to certain of the equations; second, generally speaking, we do not know which equation the selected distribution function satisfies, and, consequently, we do not know to what degree it has the properties of the distribution function which satisfies the Boltzmann equation. A more reliable technique for solving the problems of rarefied gasdynamics is that based on the approximation of the Boltzmann equation, more precisely, the approximation of the collision integral. The idea of replacing the collision integral by a simpler expression is not new [1–4]. The kinetic equations obtained as a result of this replacement are usually termed model equations, since their derivation is usually based on physical arguments and not on the direct use of the properties of the Boltzmann collision integral. In this connection we do not know to what degree the solutions of the Boltzmann equation and the model equations are close, particularly since the latter do not yield the possibility of refining the solution. Exceptions are the kinetic model for the linearized Boltzmann equation [5] and the sequence of model equations of [6], constructed by a method which is to some degree analogous with that of [5]. In the present paper we suggest for the simplification of the solution of rarefied gas mechanics problems a technique for constructing a sequence of approximate kinetic equations which is based on an approximation of the collision integral. For each approximate equation (i.e., equation with an approximate collision operator) the first few moment equations coincide with the exact moment equations. It is assumed that the accuracy of the approximate equation increases with increase of the number of exact moment equations. Concretely, the approximation for the collision integral consists of a suitable approximation of the reverse collision integral and the collision frequency. The reverse collision integral is represented in the form of the product of the collision frequency and a function which characterizes the molecular velocity distribution resulting from the collisions, where the latter is selected in the form of a locally Maxwellian function multiplied by a polynomial in terms of the components of the molecular proper velocities. The collision frequency is approximated by a suitable expression which depends on the problem conditions. For the majority of problems it may obviously be taken equal to the collision frequency calculated from the locally Maxwellian distribution function; if necessary the error resulting from the inexact calculation of the collision frequency may be reduced by iterations. To illustrate the method, we solve the simplest problem of rarefied gas theory-the problem on the relaxation of an initially homogeneous and isotropic distribution in an unbounded space to an equilibrium distribution.