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A kinetic model of the Boltzmann equation for non-vibrating polyatomic gases

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 December 2014

Lei Wu
Affiliation:
James Weir Fluids Laboratory, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G1 1XJ, UK
Craig White
Affiliation:
James Weir Fluids Laboratory, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G1 1XJ, UK
Thomas J. Scanlon
Affiliation:
James Weir Fluids Laboratory, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G1 1XJ, UK
Jason M. Reese
Affiliation:
School of Engineering, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JL, UK
Yonghao Zhang*
Affiliation:
James Weir Fluids Laboratory, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G1 1XJ, UK
*
Email address for correspondence: yonghao.zhang@strath.ac.uk
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Abstract

A kinetic model of the Boltzmann equation for non-vibrating polyatomic gases is proposed, based on the Rykov model for diatomic gases. We adopt two velocity distribution functions (VDFs) to describe the system state; inelastic collisions are the same as in the Rykov model, but elastic collisions are modelled by the Boltzmann collision operator (BCO) for monatomic gases, so that the overall kinetic model equation reduces to the Boltzmann equation for monatomic gases in the limit of no translational–rotational energy exchange. The free parameters in the model are determined by comparing the transport coefficients, obtained by a Chapman–Enskog expansion, to values from experiment and kinetic theory. The kinetic model equations are solved numerically using the fast spectral method for elastic collision operators and the discrete velocity method for inelastic ones. The numerical results for normal shock waves and planar Fourier/Couette flows are in good agreement with both conventional direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) results and experimental data. Poiseuille and thermal creep flows of polyatomic gases between two parallel plates are also investigated. Finally, we find that the spectra of both spontaneous and coherent Rayleigh–Brillouin scattering (RBS) compare well with DSMC results, and the computational speed of our model is approximately 300 times faster. Compared to the Rykov model, our model greatly improves prediction accuracy, and reveals the significant influence of molecular models. For coherent RBS, we find that the Rykov model could overpredict the bulk viscosity by a factor of two.

Information

Type
Papers
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© 2014 Cambridge University Press
Figure 0

Figure 1. Comparisons of kinetic model results and DSMC data (Liu et al.2014) for normal shock waves in nitrogen: (a) $\mathit{Ma}=4$; (b) $\mathit{Ma}=5$; (c) $\mathit{Ma}=7$. The squares, circles, stars and triangles are the normalized translational temperature in the $x_{1}$ direction, the translational temperature, the rotational temperature, and the molecular number density, respectively, all obtained from the DSMC simulations. The solid and dashed lines are, respectively, the results of our kinetic model (3.1) and the Rykov kinetic model (2.3). Here $Q$ represents the value of the macroscopic quantity, and subscripts $u$ and $d$ represent the upstream and downstream values, respectively.

Figure 1

Figure 2. Comparisons of normal shock wave profiles in nitrogen from our kinetic model and the experimental data of Robben & Talbot (1966): (a) $\mathit{Ma}=7$; (b) $\mathit{Ma}=12.9$. Here $L^{\ast }$ is the mean free path based on the sonic temperature.

Figure 2

Figure 3. Comparisons of (a) density and (b) translational temperature between our kinetic model (lines) and our DSMC simulations for planar Fourier flows. The squares and circles are the dsmcFoam results at $\mathit{Kn}=0.1$ and $\mathit{Kn}=1$, respectively. The working gas is nitrogen.

Figure 3

Figure 4. Comparisons between our kinetic model (lines) and our DSMC simulations (squares) for planar Couette flows of (a) nitrogen and (b) methane gases at $\mathit{Kn}=1$.

Figure 4

Table 1. Mass $(\mathscr{M})$ and translational heat $(\mathscr{Q}_{t})$ flow rates in Poiseuille flow of a hard-sphere diatomic gas between parallel plates. Note that the rotational heat flux is zero.

Figure 5

Figure 5. Onsager–Casimir relation for the hard-sphere diatomic gas: comparison between the heat flow rate in Poiseuille flow and the mass flow rate in thermal creep flow.

Figure 6

Table 2. Heat flow rates in thermal creep flow of a hard-sphere diatomic gas between parallel plates. Note that the rotational heat flow rates for both the Rykov model and our kinetic model are the same.

Figure 7

Figure 6. Mass flow rates in thermal creep flow between parallel plates, varying with the Knudsen number.

Figure 8

Figure 7. Spontaneous RBS spectra for different kinetic models and gas molecular models. In this and the following figures, the spectrum is normalized by its maximum value. (a) Diatomic gas $\mathit{Kn}=0.06$; (b) diatomic gas $\mathit{Kn}=0.08$; (c) nonlinear polyatomic gas $\mathit{Kn}=0.06$; (d) nonlinear polyatomic gas $\mathit{Kn}=0.08$.

Figure 9

Figure 8. Spontaneous RBS spectra for nitrogen, comparing our model (lines) to the experimental data (dots) of Gu & Ubachs (2013). (a) $T=254.7~\text{K}$, $P=2.563~\text{bar}$; (b) $T=275.2~\text{K}$, $P=2.784~\text{bar}$; (c) $T=296.7~\text{K}$, $P=3.000~\text{bar}$; (d) $T=336.6~\text{K}$, $P=3.400~\text{bar}$. The fitted values of $Z$ are (a) 1.8, (b) 2.3, (c) 2.6 and (d) 3.3.

Figure 10

Figure 9. Coherent RBS spectra for hard-sphere and Maxwell gases, at $\mathit{Kn}=0.08$: (a) and (b) diatomic gases; (c) and (d) nonlinear polyatomic gases.

Figure 11

Figure 10. Coherent RBS spectra for nitrogen, comparing our model with $Z=2.6$ (lines) to the experimental data (dots) of Vieitez et al. (2010): (a) $P=2~\text{bar}$, (b) $P=3~\text{bar}$.

Figure 12

Figure 11. Coherent RBS spectra generated by DSMC, the s6 model, and our kinetic model for (a) hard-sphere and (b) Maxwell diatomic gases, at $\mathit{Kn}=0.1$.