Kinetic model of the Boltzmann equation for a power-law intermolecular interaction potential

A model kinetic equation approximating the Boltzmann equation with a linearized collision integral is constructed to describe rarefied gas flows at moderate and low Knudsen numbers. The kinetic model describes gas flows with a power-law intermolecular interaction potential and involves five relaxation parameters. The structure of a shock wave is computed, and the results are compared with an experiment for argon.     

Models of a linearized Boltzmann collision integral

For rarefied gas flows at moderate and low Knudsen numbers, model equations are derived that approximate the Boltzmann equation with a linearized collision integral. The new kinetic models generalize and refine the S-model kinetic equation.     

Nonlinear nonequilibrium kinetic model of the boltzmann equation for monatomic gases

A model kinetic equation approximating the Boltzmann equation in a wide range of nonequilibrium gas states was constructed to describe rarefied gas flows. The kinetic model was based on a distribution function depending on the absolute velocity of the gas particles. Highly efficient in numerical computations, the model kinetic equation was used to compute a shock wave structure. The numerical results were compared with experimental data for argon.     

Simulation of rarefied gas flows on the basis of the Boltzmann kinetic equation solved by applying a conservative projection method

Flows of a simple rarefied gas and gas mixtures are computed on the basis of the Boltzmann kinetic equation, which is solved by applying various versions of the conservative projection method, namely, a two-point method for a simple gas and gas mixtures with a small difference between the molecular masses and a multipoint method in the case of a large mass difference. Examples of steady and unsteady flows are computed in a wide range of Mach and Knudsen numbers.     

Solution of the Boltzmann equation for unsteady flows with shock waves in narrow channels

Unsteady rarefied gas flows in narrow channels accompanied by shock wave formation and propagation were studied by solving the Boltzmann kinetic equation. The formation of a shock wave from an initial discontinuity of gas parameters, its propagation, damping, and reflection from the channel end face were analyzed. The Boltzmann equation was solved using finite differences. The collision integral was calculated on a fixed velocity grid by a conservative projection method. A detector of shock wave position was developed to keep track of the wave front. Parallel computations were implemented on a cluster of computers with the use of the MPI technology. Plots of shock wave damping and detailed flow fields are presented.     

Effect of weak gravitation on the plane Poiseuille flow of a highly rarefied gas

Plane Poiseuille flow of a highly rarefied gas that flows horizontally in the presence of weak gravitation is studied based on the Boltzmann equation for a hard sphere molecular gas and the diffuse reflection boundary condition. The behavior of the solution in the regime of large mean free path and small strength of gravity is studied numerically based on the one-dimensional Boltzmann equation derived by means of the asymptotic analysis for a slow variation in the flow direction. It is clarified that the effect of weak gravity on the flow is not negligible when the gas is so rarefied that the mean free path is comparable to the maximum range that the molecules travel along the parabolic path within the channel. When the mean free path is much larger than this range, the effect of gravity that makes the molecules fall plays the dominant role in determining the distribution function, and thus the over-concentration in the distribution function as well as the flow velocity does not increase further even if the mean free path is increased. The upper bound of the flow velocity and the mass flow rate of the gas are obtained as a function of the gravitational acceleration.     

THREE WAY DECOMPOSITION FOR THE BOLTZMANN EQUATION

The initial value problem for the spatially homogeneous Boltzmann equation is considered. A deterministic numerical scheme for this problem is developed by the use of the three way decomposition of the unknown function as well as of the collision integral. On this way, almost linear complexity of the algorithm is achieved. Some numerical examples are presented.     

An analytical approach to the unified solution of kinetic equations in rarefied gas dynamics. III. Evaporation and condensation problems

An analytical version of the discrete-ordinates method, the ADO method, is used here to solve two problems in the rarefied gas dynamics field, that describe evaporation/condensation between two parallel interfaces and the case of a semi-infinite medium. The modeling of the problems is based on a general expression which may represent four different kinetic models, derived from the linearized Boltzmann equation. This work is an extension of two other previous works, devoted to rarefied gas flow and heat transfer problems, where the complete development of the ADO solution, which is analytical in terms of the spatial variable, is presented in a way, such that, the four kinetic models are considered, in an unified approach. A series of numerical results are showed in order to establish a general comparative analysis between this consistent set of results provided by the same methodology, based on kinetic models, and results obtained from the linearized Boltzmann equation. In particular, the temperature and density jumps are evaluated.     

Thermal transpiration for the linearized Boltzmann equation

The phenomena of thermal transpiration due to the boundary temperature gradient is studied on the level of the linearized Boltzmann equation for the hard‐sphere model. We construct such a flow for a highly rarefied gas between two plates and also in a circular pipe. It is shown that the flow velocity parallel to the plates is proportional to the boundary temperature gradient. For a highly rarefied gas, that is, for a sufficiently large Knudsen number κ, the flow velocity between two plates is of the order of log κ, and the flow velocity in a pipe is of finite order. Our analysis is based on certain pointwise estimates of the solutions of the linearized Boltzmann equation. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

BIOLUMINESCENCE TOMOGRAPHY： BIOMEDICAL BACKGROUND,MATHEMATICAL THEORY,AND NUMERICAL APPROXIMATION

Over the last couple of years molecular imaging has been rapidly developed to study physiological and pathological processes in vivo at the cellular and molecular levels. Among molecular imaging modalities, optical imaging stands out for its unique advantages, especially performance and cost-effectiveness. Bioluminescence tomography （BLT） is an emerging optical imaging mode with promising biomedical advantages. In this survey paper, we explain the biomedical significance of BLT, summarize theoretical results on the analysis and numerical solution of a diffusion based BLT model, and comment on a few extensions for the study of BLT.     

A NUMERICAL STUDY OF UNIFORM SUPERCONVERGENCE OF LDG METHOD FOR SOLVING SINGULARLY PERTURBED PROBLEMS

In this paper, we consider the local discontinuous Galerkin method （LDG） for solving singularly perturbed convection-diffusion problems in one- and two-dimensional settings. The existence and uniqueness of the LDG solutions are verified. Numerical experiments demonstrate that it seems impossible to obtain uniform superconvergence for numerical fluxes under uniform meshes. Thanks to the implementation of two-type different anisotropic meshes, i.e., the Shishkin and an improved grade meshes, the uniform 2p ＋ i-order superconvergence is observed numerically for both one-dimensional and twodimensional cases.     

NUMERICAL RECONSTRUCTION OF SMALL PERTURBATIONS IN THE ELECTROMAGNETIC COEFFICIENTS OF A DIELECTRIC MATERIAL

The aim of this paper is to solve numerically the inverse problem of reconstructing small amplitude perturbations in the magnetic permeability of a dielectric material from partial or total dynamic boundary measurements. Our numerical algorithm is based on the resolution of the time-dependent Maxwell equations, an exact controllability method and Fourier inversion for localizing the perturbations. Two-dimensional numerical experiments illustrate the performance of the reconstruction method for different configurations even in the case of limited-view data.     

EFFICIENT NUMERICAL ALGORITHMS FOR THREE-DIMENSIONAL FRACTIONAL PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS

This paper detailedly discusses the locally one-dimensional numerical methods for ef- ficiently solving the three-dimensional fractional partial differential equations, including fractional advection diffusion equation and Riesz fractional diffusion equation. The second order finite difference scheme is used to discretize the space fractional derivative and the Crank-Nicolson procedure to the time derivative. We theoretically prove and numerically verify that the presented numerical methods are unconditionally stable and second order convergent in both space and time directions. In particular, for the Riesz fractional dif- fusion equation, the idea of reducing the splitting error is used to further improve the algorithm, and the unconditional stability and convergency are also strictly proved and numerically verified for the improved scheme.     

An analytical approach to the unified solution of kinetic equations in rarefied gas dynamics. III. Evaporation and condensation problems

An analytical version of the discrete-ordinates method, the ADO method, is used here to solve two problems in the rarefied gas dynamics field, that describe evaporation/condensation between two parallel interfaces and the case of a semi-infinite medium. The modeling of the problems is based on a general expression which may represent four different kinetic models, derived from the linearized Boltzmann equation. This work is an extension of two other previous works, devoted to rarefied gas flow and heat transfer problems, where the complete development of the ADO solution, which is analytical in terms of the spatial variable, is presented in a way, such that, the four kinetic models are considered, in an unified approach. A series of numerical results are showed in order to establish a general comparative analysis between this consistent set of results provided by the same methodology, based on kinetic models, and results obtained from the linearized Boltzmann equation. In particular, the temperature and density jumps are evaluated.     

STATIC REGIME IMAGING OF LOCATIONS OF CERTAIN 3D ELECTROMAGNETIC IMPERFECTIONS FROM A BOUNDARY PERTURBATION FORMULA

We are concerned, in a static regime, with a three-dimensional bounded domain of certain an imaging approach of the locations in electromagnetic imperfections. This approach is related to Electrical Impedance Tomography and makes use of a new perturbation formula in the electric fields. We present two localization procedures, from a Current Pro- jection method that deals with the single imperfection context and an inverse Fourier process that is devoted to multiple imperfections configurations. These procedures extend those that were described in our previous work, since operating for a broader class of settings. Namely, the localization is additionally performed for certain purely electric imperfections, as established from numerical simulations.     

Implicit numerical method for computing three-dimensional rarefied gas flows on unstructured meshes

The method based on the numerical solution of a model kinetic equation is proposed for analyzing three-dimensional rarefied gas flows. The basic idea behind the method is the use of a second-order accurate TVD scheme on hybrid unstructured meshes in physical space and a fast implicit time discretization method without iterations at the upper level. The performance of the method is illustrated by computing test examples of three-dimensional rarefied gas flows in variously shaped channels in a wide range of Knudsen numbers.     

The Kramers problem: Velocity slip and defect for a hard sphere gas with arbitrary accommodation

The half-space problem of rarefied gas flow (the Kramers problem) is considered for the linearized Boltzmann equation and arbitrary gas-surface interaction. Accurate numerical results for the velocity slip coefficient and velocity defect are obtained for the rigid sphere interaction and Maxwellian boundary condition.     

Computation of rarefied diatomic gas flows through a plane microchannel

A numerical method based on a model kinetic equation was developed for computing diatomic rarefied gas flows in two dimensions. Nitrogen flows through a plane microchannel were computed, and the gas flow rate was constructed as a function of the Knudsen number for various channel lengths.