Wall effect on the motion of a rigid body immersed in a free molecular flow

Abstract

Motion of a rigid body immersed in a semi-infinite expanse of gas in a $d$-dimensional region bounded by an infinite plane wall is studied for free molecular flow on the basis of the free Vlasov equation under the specular boundary condition. We show that the velocity $V(t)$ of the body approaches its terminal velocity $V_{\infty}$ according to a power law $V_{\infty}-V(t)\approx Ct^{-(d-1)}$ by carefully analyzing the pre-collisions due to the presence of the wall. The exponent $d-1$ is smaller than $d+2$ for the case without the wall found in the classical work by Caprino, Marchioro and Pulvirenti~[Comm. Math. Phys., \textbf{264} (2006), pp. 167--189] and thus slower convergence rate results from the presence of the wall.