Mathematical and Numerical Study of a Dusty Knudsen Gas Mixture

Abstract

We consider a mixture composed of a gas and dust particles in a very rarefied setting. Whereas the dust particles are individually described, the surrounding gas is treated as a Knudsen gas, in such a way that interactions occur only between gas particles and dust by means of diffuse reflection phenomena. After introducing the model, we prove the existence and the uniqueness of the solution and provide a numerical strategy for the study of the equations. At the numerical level, we focus our attention on the phenomenon of energy transfer between the gas and the moving dust particles.