Kinetic Fokker-Planck equation for free-molecular, thermally nonequilibrium Brownian particles in an inhomogeneous gas

Abstract

A kinetic equation for the translational and angular velocity distribution function of spherical rigid Brownian particles in an inhomogeneous monatomic gas is derived. The particle diameters are much smaller than the average free path of the gas molecules and the interaction between the particles and their effect on the carrier (gas) phase are neglected. The particle temperatures T p are the same and differ from the local gas temperature T. The molecular velocity distribution function is specified by the first approximation of the Chapman-Enskog method. The difference between the characteristic phase velocities is small as compared with the mean thermal molecular velocity. The dependences of the diffusion coefficients in velocity space on the ratio T p/T, which characterize the effect of thermal nonequilibrium, i.e., violation of the thermodynamic equilibrium between the phases of the disperse system, are found using a specular-diffuse law of reflection of the molecules from the particle surface.