Small Knudsen Numbers Research Articles

A unified stochastic particle Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook method for multiscale gas flows

The stochastic particle method based on Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook (BGK) or ellipsoidal statistical BGK (ESBGK) model approximates the pairwise collisions in the Boltzmann equation using a relaxation process. Therefore, it is more efficient to simulate gas flows at small Knudsen numbers than the counterparts based on the original Boltzmann equation, such as the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method. However, the traditional stochastic particle BGK method decouples the molecular motions and collisions in analogy to the DSMC method, and hence its transport properties deviate from physical values as the time step size increases. This defect significantly affects its computational accuracy and efficiency for the simulation of multiscale flows, especially when the transport processes in the continuum regime is important. In the present paper, we propose a unified stochastic particle ESBGK (USP-ESBGK) method by combining the molecular convection and collision effects. In the continuum regime, the proposed method can be applied using large temporal-spatial discretization and approaches to the Navier-Stokes solutions with second-order accuracy. Furthermore, it is capable to simulate both the small scale non-equilibrium flows and large scale continuum flows within a unified framework efficiently and accurately. The applications of USP-ESBGK method to a variety of benchmark problems, including Couette flow, thermal Couette flow, Poiseuille flow, Sod tube flow, cavity flow, Taylor-Green vortex, and flow through a slit, demonstrated that it is a promising tool to simulate multiscale gas flows ranging from rarefied to continuum regime.

Exact solutions and attractors of higher-order viscous fluid dynamics for Bjorken flow

We consider causal higher order theories of relativistic viscous hydrodynamics in the limit of one-dimensional boost-invariant expansion and study the associated dynamical attractor. We obtain evolution equations for the inverse Reynolds number as a function of Knudsen number. The solutions of these equations exhibit attractor behavior which we analyze in terms of Lyapunov exponents using several different techniques. We compare the attractors of the second-order M\"uller-Israel-Stewart (MIS), transient Denicol-Niemi-Molnar-Rischke (DNMR), and third-order theories with the exact solution of the Boltzmann equation in the relaxation-time approximation. It is shown that for Bjorken flow the third-order theory provides a better approximation to the exact kinetic theory attractor than both MIS and DNMR theories. For three different choices of the time dependence of the shear relaxation rate we find analytical solutions for the energy density and shear stress and use these to study the attractors analytically. By studying these analytical solutions at both small and large Knudsen numbers we characterize and uniquely determine the attractors and Lyapunov exponents. While for small Knudsen numbers the approach to the attractor is exponential, strong power-law decay of deviations from the attractor and rapid loss of initial state memory are found even for large Knudsen numbers. Implications for the applicability of hydrodynamics in far-off-equilibrium situations are discussed.

Fractional Diffusion Limit of a Kinetic Equation with Diffusive Boundary Conditions in the Upper-Half Space

We investigate the fractional diffusion approximation of a kinetic equation in the upper-half plane with diffusive reflection conditions at the boundary. In an appropriate singular limit corresponding to small Knudsen number and long time asymptotic, we derive a fractional diffusion equation with a nonlocal Neumann boundary condition for the density of particles. Interestingly, this asymptotic equation is different from the one derived by L. Cesbron in [7] in the case of specular reflection conditions at the boundary and does not seem to have receive a lot of attention previously.

Controlling the bias error of Fokker-Planck methods for rarefied gas dynamics simulations

Direct simulation Monte-Carlo (DSMC) is the most established method for rarefied gas flow simulations. It is valid from continuum to near vacuum, but in cases involving small Knudsen numbers (Kn), it suffers from high computational cost. The Fokker-Planck (FP) method, on the other hand, is almost as accurate as DSMC for small to moderate Kn, but it does not have the computational drawback of DSMC, if Kn is small [P. Jenny, M. Torrilhon, and S. Heinz, “A solution algorithm for the fluid dynamic equations based on a stochastic model for molecular motion,” J. Comput. Phys. 229, 1077–1098 (2010) and H. Gorji, M. Torrilhon, and P. Jenny, “Fokker–Planck model for computational studies of monatomic rarefied gas flows,” J. Fluid Mech. 680, 574–601 (2011)]. Especially attractive is the combination of the two approaches leading to the FP-DSMC method. Opposed to other hybrid methods, e.g., coupled DSMC/Navier-Stokes solvers, it is relatively straightforward to couple DSMC with the FP method since both are based on particle solution algorithms sharing the same data structure and having similar components. Regarding the numerical accuracy of such particle methods, one has to distinguish between spatial truncation errors, time stepping errors, statistical errors and bias errors. In this paper, the bias error of the FP method is analyzed in detail, and it is shown how it can be reduced without increasing the particle number to an exorbitant level. The effectiveness of the discussed bias error reduction scheme is demonstrated for uniform shear flow, for which an analytical reference solution was derived.

Barodiffusion in Slow Flows of a Gas Mixture

Barodiffusion in slow flows of a gas mixture is studied with an approximation using hydrodynamic equations of motion for the individual mixture components. It is shown that consideration of the viscous momentum transfer and the contribution of Knudsen layers for the mixture flowing in a channel has a considerable effect on the value of the barodiffusion factor. The relations are obtained for the mean diffusion fluxes of components and for the total flux of the mixture in a circular cylindrical capillary; these relations are valid for moderately small Knudsen numbers used for calculation of the diffusion baroeffect and separation effect when the gas mixture flows in a set of capillaries connecting two volumes. The modification of the relations for the barodiffusion factor (and for the diffusion slip coefficient cross-linked with it) allows interpreting the sign alteration of these effects observed experimentally for some gas mixtures at intermediate Knudsen numbers.

Micro-macro decomposition based asymptotic-preserving numerical schemes and numerical moments conservation for collisional nonlinear kinetic equations

In this paper, we first extend the micro–macro decomposition method for multiscale kinetic equations from the BGK model to general collisional kinetic equations, including the Boltzmann and the Fokker–Planck Landau equations. The main idea is to use a relation between the (numerically stiff) linearized collision operator with the nonlinear quadratic ones, the latter's stiffness can be overcome using the BGK penalization method of Filbet and Jin for the Boltzmann, or the linear Fokker–Planck penalization method of Jin and Yan for the Fokker–Planck Landau equations. Such a scheme allows the computation of multiscale collisional kinetic equations efficiently in all regimes, including the fluid regime in which the fluid dynamic behavior can be correctly computed even without resolving the small Knudsen number. A distinguished feature of these schemes is that although they contain implicit terms, they can be implemented explicitly. These schemes preserve the moments (mass, momentum and energy) exactly thanks to the use of the macroscopic system which is naturally in a conservative form. We further utilize this conservation property for more general kinetic systems, using the Vlasov–Ampère and Vlasov–Ampère–Boltzmann systems as examples. The main idea is to evolve both the kinetic equation for the probability density distribution and the moment system, the later naturally induces a scheme that conserves exactly the moments numerically if they are physically conserved.

Thermalization & hydrodynamics in Bjorken & Gubser flows

The dynamical scaling behavior of hydrodynamic and non-hydrodynamic moments of the distribution function is stud- ied using third-order Chapman-Enskog hydrodynamics and anisotropic hydrodynamics for systems undergoing Bjorken and Gubser expansions, where exact solutions of the Boltzmann equation in Relaxation Time Approximation (RTA) are available for comparison. While dimensionless quantities like normalized shear, pressure anisotropy and normalized entropy show at late times universal scaling relations with small (large) Knudsen number for Bjorken (Gubser) flows, di- mensionful quantities like the entropy per unit rapidity do not. Although the two hydrodynamic approximation schemes describe the exact attractors for normalized shear with high accuracy, their description for the normalized entropy is less precise. We attribute this to non-negligible couplings to non-hydrodynamic modes in the entropy evolution.

A numerical scheme for a kinetic model for mixtures in the diffusive limit using the moment method

In this article, we consider a multi‐species kinetic model which leads to the Maxwell–Stefan equations under a standard diffusive scaling (small Knudsen and Mach numbers). We propose a suitable numerical scheme which approximates both the solution of the kinetic model in rarefied regime and the one in the diffusion limit. We prove some a priori estimates (mass conservation and nonnegativity) and well‐posedness of the discrete problem. We also present numerical examples where we observe the asymptotic‐preserving behavior of the scheme.

Temperature Distribution through a Nanofilm by Means of a Ballistic-Diffusive Approach

As microelectronic devices are important in many applications, their heat management needs to be improved, in order to prolong their lifetime, and to reduce the risk of damage. In nanomaterials, heat transport shows different behaviors than what can be observed at macroscopic sizes. Studying heat transport through nanofilms is a necessary tool for nanodevice thermal management. This work proposes a thermodynamic model incorporating both ballistic, introduced by non-local effects, and diffusive phonon transport. Extended thermodynamics principles are used in order to develop a constitutive equation for the ballistic behavior of heat conduction at small-length scales. Being an irreversible process, the present two-temperature model contains a one-way transition of ballistic to diffusive phonons as time proceeds. The model is compared to the classical Fourier and Cattaneo laws. These laws were not able to present the non-locality that our model shows, which is present in cases when the length scale of the material is of the same order of magnitude or smaller than the phonon mean free path, i.e., when the Knudsen number K n ≤ O ( 1 ) . Moreover, for small K n numbers, our model predicted behaviors close to that of the classical laws, with a weak temperature jump at both sides of the nanofilm. However, as K n increases, the behavior changes completely, the ballistic component becomes more important, and the temperature jump at both sides of the nanofilms becomes more pronounced. For comparison, a model using Fourier’s and Cattaneo’s laws with an effective thermal conductivity has shown, with reasonable qualitative comparison for small Knudsen numbers and large times.

A Second-Order Asymptotic-Preserving and Positivity-Preserving Exponential Runge--Kutta Method for a Class of Stiff Kinetic Equations

We introduce a second-order time discretization method for stiff kinetic equations. The method is asymptotic-preserving (AP) -- can capture the Euler limit without numerically resolving the small Knudsen number; and positivity-preserving -- can preserve the non-negativity of the solution which is a probability density function for arbitrary Knudsen numbers. The method is based on a new formulation of the exponential Runge-Kutta method and can be applied to a large class of stiff kinetic equations including the BGK equation (relaxation type), the Fokker-Planck equation (diffusion type), and even the full Boltzmann equation (nonlinear integral type). Furthermore, we show that when coupled with suitable spatial discretizations the fully discrete scheme satisfies an entropy-decay property. Various numerical results are provided to demonstrate the theoretical properties of the method.

О бародиффузии при медленных течениях газовой смеси

AbstractBarodiffusion in slow flows of a gas mixture is studied with an approximation using hydrodynamic equations of motion for the individual mixture components. It is shown that consideration of the viscous momentum transfer and the contribution of Knudsen layers for the mixture flowing in a channel has a considerable effect on the value of the barodiffusion factor. The relations are obtained for the mean diffusion fluxes of components and for the total flux of the mixture in a circular cylindrical capillary; these relations are valid for moderately small Knudsen numbers used for calculation of the diffusion baroeffect and separation effect when the gas mixture flows in a set of capillaries connecting two volumes. The modification of the relations for the barodiffusion factor (and for the diffusion slip coefficient cross-linked with it) allows interpreting the sign alteration of these effects observed experimentally for some gas mixtures at intermediate Knudsen numbers.

Hydrodynamic interactions between aerosol particles in the transition regime

We present a method for calculating the hydrodynamic interactions between particles in the kinetic (or transition regime), characterized by non-negligible particle Knudsen numbers. Such particles are often present in aerosol systems. The method is based on our extended Kirkwood–Riseman theory (Corson et al., Phys. Rev. E, vol. 95 (1), 2017c, 013103), which accounts for interactions between spheres using the velocity field around a translating sphere as a function of Knudsen number. Results for the two-sphere problem at small Knudsen numbers are in good agreement with those obtained using Felderhof’s interaction actions for mixed slip-stick boundary conditions, which are accurate to order $r^{-7}$ (Felderhof, Physica A, vol. 89 (2), 1977, pp. 373–384). The strength of the interactions decreases with increasing Knudsen number. Results for two fractal aggregates demonstrate that one can apply a point force approach for interactions between particles in the transition regime; the interaction tensor is similar to the Oseen tensor for continuum flow. Using this point force approach, we present an analysis for the settling of an unbounded cloud of particles. Our analysis shows that for sufficiently high volume fractions and cloud radii, the cloud behaves as a gas droplet in continuum flow even when the individual particles are small relative to the mean free path of the gas. The method presented here can be applied in a Brownian dynamics simulation analogous to Stokesian dynamics to study the behaviour of a dense aerosol system.

Thermophoresis of Janus particles at large Knudsen numbers

The force and torque on a Janus sphere moving in a rarefied gas with a thermal gradient are calculated. The regime of large Knudsen number is considered, with the momenta of impinging gas molecules either obtained from a Chapman-Enskog distribution or from a binary Maxwellian distribution between two opposing parallel plates at different temperature. The reflection properties at the surface of the Janus particle are characterized by accommodation coefficients having constant but dissimilar values on each hemisphere. It is shown that the Janus particle preferentially orients such that the hemisphere with a larger accommodation coefficient points towards the lower temperature. The thermophoretic velocity of the particle is computed, and the influence of the thermophoretic motion on the magnitude of the torque responsible for the particle orientation is studied. The analytical calculations are supported by Direct Simulation Monte Carlo results, extending the scope of the study towards smaller Knudsen numbers. The results shed light on the efficiency of oriented deposition of nanoparticles from the gas phase onto a cold surface.

Diffusion-driven fluid dynamics in ideal gases and plasmas

The classical transport theory based on Chapman-Enskog methods provides self-consistent approximations for the kinetic flux of mass, heat, and momentum in a fluid limit characterized with a small Knudsen number. The species mass fluxes relative to the center of mass, or “diffusive fluxes,” are expressed as functions of known gradient quantities with kinetic coefficients evaluated using similar analyses for mixtures of gases or plasma components. The sum over species of the diffusive mass fluxes is constrained to be zero in the Lagrange frame, and thus results in a non-zero molar flux leading to a pressure perturbation. At an interface between two species initially in pressure equilibrium, the pressure perturbation driven by the diffusive molar flux induces a center of mass velocity directed from the species of greater atomic mass towards the lighter atomic mass species. As the ratio of the species particle masses increases, this center of mass velocity carries an increasingly greater portion of the mass across the interface and for a particle mass ratio greater than about two, the center of mass velocity carries more mass than the gradient driven diffusion flux. Early time transients across an interface between two species in a 1D plasma regime and initially in equilibrium are compared using three methods; a fluid code with closure in a classical transport approximation, a particle in cell simulation, and an implicit Fokker-Planck solver for the particle distribution functions. The early time transient phenomenology is shown to be similar in each of the computational simulation methods, including a pressure perturbation associated with the stationary “induced” component of the center of mass velocity which decays to pressure equilibrium during diffusion. At early times, the diffusive process generates pressure and velocity waves which propagate outward from the interface and are required to maintain momentum conservation. The energy in the outgoing waves dissipates as heat in viscous regions, and it is hypothesized that these diffusion driven waves may sustain fluctuations in less viscid finite domains after reflections from the boundaries. These fluid dynamic phenomena are similar in gases or plasmas and occur in flow transients with a moderate Knudsen number. The analysis and simulation results show how the kinetic flux, represented in the fluid transport closure, directly modifies the mass averaged flow described with the Euler equations.

Expansion of a Rarefied Gas Cloud in a Vacuum: Asymptotic Treatment

The unsteady expansion of a rarefied gas of finite mass in an unlimited space is studied. The long-time asymptotic behavior of the solution is examined at Knudsen numbers tending to zero. An asymptotic analysis shows that, in the limit of small Knudsen numbers, the behavior of the macroscopic parameters of the expanding gas cloud at long times (i.e., for small density values) has nothing to do with the free-molecular or continuum flow regimes. This conclusion is unexpected and not obvious, but follows from a uniformly suitable solution constructed by applying the method of outer and inner asymptotic expansions. In particular, the unusual temperature behavior is of interest as applied to remote sensing of rocket exhaust plumes.

Asymptotic-Preserving and Positivity-Preserving Implicit-Explicit Schemes for the Stiff BGK Equation

We develop a family of second-order implicit-explicit (IMEX) schemes for the stiff Bhatnagar--Gross--Krook (BGK) kinetic equation. The method is asymptotic-preserving (can capture the Euler limit without numerically resolving the small Knudsen number) as well as positivity-preserving---a feature that is not possessed by any of the existing second- or high-order IMEX schemes. The method is based on the usual IMEX Runge--Kutta framework plus a key correction step utilizing the special structure of the BGK operator. Formal analysis is presented to demonstrate the property of the method and is supported by various numerical results. Moreover, we show that the method satisfies an entropy-decay property when coupled with suitable spatial discretizations. Additionally, we discuss the generalization of the method to some hyperbolic relaxation system and provide a strategy to extend the method to third order.

Fast ion transport at a gas-metal interface

Fast ion transport and the resulting fusion yield reduction are computed at a gas-metal interface. The extent of fusion yield reduction is observed to depend sensitively on the charge state of the surrounding pusher material and the width of the atomically mixed region. These sensitivities suggest that idealized boundary conditions often implemented at the gas-pusher interface for the purpose of estimating fast ion loss will likely overestimate fusion reactivity reduction in several important limits. In addition, the impact of a spatially complex material interface is investigated by considering a collection of droplets of the pusher material immersed in a DT plasma. It is found that for small Knudsen numbers, the extent of fusion yield reduction scales with the surface area of the material interface. As the Knudsen number is increased, however, the simple surface area scaling is broken, suggesting that hydrodynamic mix has a nontrivial impact on the extent of fast ion losses.

Analytical expression for the friction coefficient of DLCA aggregates based on extended Kirkwood–Riseman theory

ABSTRACTWe use a self-consistent field method, which we have previously validated, to calculate the translational friction coefficient of fractal aerosol particles formed by diffusion-limited cluster aggregation (DLCA). Our method involves solving the Bhatnagar–Gross–Krook model for the velocity around a sphere in the transition flow regime. The velocity and drag results are then used in an extension of Kirkwood–Riseman theory to obtain the drag on the aggregate. Our results span a range of primary sphere Knudsen numbers from 0.01 to 100 for clusters with up to N = 2000 primary spheres. Calculated friction coefficients are in good agreement with experimental data and approach the correct continuum and free molecule limits for small and large Knudsen numbers, respectively. Results show that particles exhibit more continuum-like behavior as the number of primary spheres increase, even when the primary particle is in the free molecule regime; as an illustrative example, the friction coefficient for aggregate...

Thermally induced gas flows in ratchet channels with diffuse and specular boundaries

A net gas flow can be induced in the gap between periodically structured surfaces held at fixed but different temperatures when the reflection symmetry along the channel axis is broken. Such a situation arises when one surface features a ratchet structure and can be augmented by altering the boundary conditions on different parts of this surface, with some regions reflecting specularly and others diffusely. In order to investigate the physical mechanisms inducing the flow in this configuration at various Knudsen numbers and geometric configurations, direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) simulations are employed using transient adaptive subcells for collision partner selection. At large Knudsen numbers the results compare favorably with analytical expressions, while for small Knudsen numbers a qualitative explanation for the flow in the strong temperature inhomogeneity at the tips of the ratchet is provided. A detailed investigation of the performance for various ratchet geometries suggests optimum working conditions for a Knudsen pump based on this mechanism.

Numerical simulation of heat transfer in a micro-cavity

The behaviour of rarefied monatomic gas of Maxwell particles within a rectangular enclosure is investigated, with the Navier–Stokes and Fourier field of equations with first- (NSF) and second-order boundary conditions (NSF2) of the velocity slip and temperature jump, and the regularized 13 moments approach (R13). The enclosure considered has a heated bottom with lateral walls that have specular reflection. The effect of the three dimensionless parameters characterizing the simulated problem, the cavity aspect ratio, the Knudsen number, and the temperature ratio of the hot over the cold walls, on the flow and bulk quantities is examined. For the small Knudsen numbers the flow presents one type of streamlines from the cold to hot plate in both NSF and R13 theories, while by increasing the Knudsen number the flow becomes more complex and presents hot to cold flow streamlines in the extended approach of R13. These rarefaction effects cannot be predicted by the classical continuum approach of NSF. The increase of the temperature ratio in R13 affects the hot to cold flow, which begins to vanish, while this type of streamline does not appear by decreasing the aspect ratio.