Nonlinear Transport in Inelastic Maxwell Mixtures Under Simple Shear Flow

The Boltzmann equation for inelastic Maxwell models is used to analyze nonlinear transport in a granular binary mixture in the steady simple shear flow. Two different transport processes are studied. First, the rheological properties (shear and normal stresses) are obtained by solving exactly the velocity moment equations. Second, the diffusion tensor of impurities immersed in a sheared inelastic Maxwell gas is explicitly determined from a perturbation solution through first order in the concentration gradient. The corresponding reference state of this expansion corresponds to the solution derived in the (pure) shear flow problem. All these transport coefficients are given in terms of the restitution coefficients and the parameters of the mixture (ratios of masses, concentration, and sizes). The results are compared with those obtained analytically for inelastic hard spheres in the first Sonine approximation and by means of Monte Carlo simulations. The comparison between the results obtained for both interaction models shows a good agreement over a wide range values of the parameter space.     

Navier–Stokes Transport Coefficients of <Emphasis Type="Italic">d</Emphasis>-Dimensional Granular Binary Mixtures at Low Density

The Navier–Stokes transport coefficients for binary mixtures of smooth inelastic hard disks or spheres under gravity are determined from the Boltzmann kinetic theory by application of the Chapman–Enskog method for states near the local homogeneous cooling state. It is shown that the Navier–Stokes transport coefficients are not affected by the presence of gravity. As in the elastic case, the transport coefficients of the mixture verify a set of coupled linear integral equations that are approximately solved by using the leading terms in a Sonine polynomial expansion. The results reported here extend previous calculations (Garzó, V., Dufty, J.W. in Phys. Fluids 14:1476–1490, 2002) to an arbitrary number of dimensions and provide explicit expressions for the seven Navier–Stokes transport coefficients in terms of the coefficients of restitution and the masses, composition, and sizes of the constituents of the mixture. In addition, to check the accuracy of our theory, the inelastic Boltzmann equation is also numerically solved by means of the direct simulation Monte Carlo method to evaluate the diffusion and shear viscosity coefficients for hard disks. The comparison shows a good agreement over a wide range of values of the coefficients of restitution and the parameters of the mixture (masses and sizes).     

Boltzmann Equations For Mixtures of Maxwell Gases: Exact Solutions and Power Like Tails

We consider the Boltzmann equations for mixtures of Maxwell gases. It is shown that in certain limiting case the equations admit self-similar solutions that can be constructed in explicit form. More precisely, the solutions have simple explicit integral representations. The most interesting solutions have finite energy and power like tails. This shows that power like tails can appear not just for granular particles (Maxwell models are far from reality in this case), but also in the system of particles interacting in accordance with laws of classical mechanics. In addition, non-existence of positive self-similar solutions with finite moments of any order is proven for a wide class of Maxwell models.     

Decay Rates in Probability Metrics Towards Homogeneous Cooling States for the Inelastic Maxwell Model

We quantify the long-time behavior of solutions to the nonlinear Boltzmann equation for spatially uniform freely cooling inelastic Maxwell molecules by means of the contraction property of a suitable metric in the set of probability measures. Existence, uniqueness, and precise estimates of overpopulated high energy tails of the self-similar profile proved in ref. 9 are revisited and derived from this new Liapunov functional. For general initial conditions the solutions of the Boltzmann equation are then proved to converge with computable rate as t → ∞ to the self-similar solution in this distance, which metrizes the weak convergence of measures. Moreover, we can relate this Fourier distance to the Euclidean Wasserstein distance or Tanaka functional proving also its exponential convergence towards the homogeneous cooling states. The findings are relevant in the understanding of the conjecture formulated by Ernst and Brito in refs. 15, 16, and complement and improve recent studies on the same problem of Bobylev and Cercignani⁽⁹⁾ and Bobylev, Cercignani and one of the authors.⁽¹¹⁾     

Kinetic Theory of Polydisperse Granular Mixtures: Influence of the Partial Temperatures on Transport Properties—A Review

It is well-recognized that granular media under rapid flow conditions can be modeled as a gas of hard spheres with inelastic collisions. At moderate densities, a fundamental basis for the determination of the granular hydrodynamics is provided by the Enskog kinetic equation conveniently adapted to account for inelastic collisions. A surprising result (compared to its molecular gas counterpart) for granular mixtures is the failure of the energy equipartition, even in homogeneous states. This means that the partial temperatures Ti (measuring the mean kinetic energy of each species) are different to the (total) granular temperature T. The goal of this paper is to provide an overview on the effect of different partial temperatures on the transport properties of the mixture. Our analysis addresses first the impact of energy nonequipartition on transport which is only due to the inelastic character of collisions. This effect (which is absent for elastic collisions) is shown to be significant in important problems in granular mixtures such as thermal diffusion segregation. Then, an independent source of energy nonequipartition due to the existence of a divergence of the flow velocity is studied. This effect (which was already analyzed in several pioneering works on dense hard-sphere molecular mixtures) affects to the bulk viscosity coefficient. Analytical (approximate) results are compared against Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics simulations, showing the reliability of kinetic theory for describing granular flows.     

Self-Similar Asymptotics for the Boltzmann Equation with Inelastic and Elastic Interactions

We consider some questions related to the self-similar asymptotics in the kinetic theory of both elastic and inelastic particles. In the second case we have in mind granular materials, when the model of hard spheres with inelastic collisions is replaced by a Maxwell model, characterized by a collision frequency independent of the relative speed of the colliding particles. We first discuss how to define the n-dimensional (n = 1,2,...) inelastic Maxwell model and its connection with the more basic Boltzmann equation for inelastic hard spheres. Then we consider both elastic and inelastic Maxwell models from a unified viewpoint. We prove the existence of (positive in the inelastic case) self-similar solutions with finite energy and investigate their role in large time asymptotics. It is proved that a recent conjecture by Ernst and Brito devoted to high energy tails for inelastic Maxwell particles is true for a certain class of initial data which includes Maxwellians. We also prove that the self-similar asymptotics for high energies is typical for some classes of solutions of the classical (elastic) Boltzmann equation for Maxwell molecules. New classes of (not necessarily positive) finite-energy eternal solutions of this equation are also studied.     

Discrete Velocity Models for Mixtures

Models of discrete velocity gases have been used for a long time, but only in the last few years have they become a tool to construct sequences converging to solutions of the Boltzmann equation. It appears that the case of mixtures has been rarely considered and only a couple of models, which are trivial in a sense to be explained in this paper, have been introduced. Here we thoroughly investigate the matter, and supply examples of models with both finitely and infinitely many velocities.     

Statistical Estimates for the Navier–Stokes Equations and the Kraichnan Theory of 2-D Fully Developed Turbulence

A mathematical formulation of the Kraichnan theory for 2-D fully developed turbulence is given in terms of ensemble averages of solutions to the Navier–Stokes equations. A simple condition is given for the enstrophy cascade to hold for wavenumbers just beyond the highest wavenumber of the force up to a fixed fraction of the dissipation wavenumber, up to a logarithmic correction. This is followed by partial rigorous support for Kraichnan's eddy breakup mechanism. A rigorous estimate for the total energy is found to be consistent with Kraichnan's theory. Finally, it is shown that under our conditions for fully developed turbulence the fractal dimension of the attractor obeys a sharper upper bound than in the general case.     

Knudsen Layer for Gas Mixtures

The Knudsen layer in rarefied gas dynamics is essentially described by a half-space boundary-value problem of the linearized Boltzmann equation, in which the incoming data are specified on the boundary and the solution is assumed to be bounded at infinity (Milne problem). This problem is considered for a binary mixture of hard-sphere gases, and the existence and uniqueness of the solution, as well as some asymptotic properties, are proved. The proof is an extension of that of the corresponding theorem for a single-component gas given by Bardos, Caflisch, and Nicolaenko [Comm. Pure Appl. Math. 39:323 (1986)]. Some estimates on the convergence of the solution in a finite slab to the solution of the Milne problem are also obtained.     

A Consistent BGK-Type Model for Gas Mixtures

We introduce a relaxation collision operator for a mixture of gases which satisfies several fundamental properties. Different BGK type collision operators for gas mixtures have been introduced earlier but none of them could satisfy all the basic physical properties: positivity, correct exchange coefficients, entropy inequality, indifferentiability principle. We show that all those properties are verified for our model, and we derive its Navier–Stokes limit by a Chapman–Enskog expansion.     

An improved gas-kinetic BGK finite-volume method for three-dimensional transonic flow

During the past decade gas-kinetic methods based on the BGK simplification of the Boltzmann equation have been employed to compute fluid flow in a finite-difference or finite-volume context. Among the most successful formulations is the finite-volume scheme proposed by Xu [K. Xu, A gas-kinetic BGK scheme for the Navier–Stokes equations and its connection with artificial dissipation and Godunov method, J. Comput. Phys. 171 (48) (2001) 289–335]. In this paper we build on this theoretical framework mainly with the aim to improve the efficiency and convergence of the scheme, and extend the range of application to three-dimensional complex geometries using general unstructured meshes. To that end we propose a modified BGK finite-volume scheme, which significantly reduces the computational cost, and improves the behavior on stretched unstructured meshes. Furthermore, a modified data reconstruction procedure is presented to remove the known problem that the Chapman–Enskog expansion of the BGK equation fixes the Prandtl number at unity. The new Prandtl number correction operates at the level of the partial differential equations and is also significantly cheaper for general formulations than previously published methods. We address the issue of convergence acceleration by applying multigrid techniques to the kinetic discretization. The proposed modifications and convergence acceleration help make large-scale computations feasible at a cost competitive with conventional discretization techniques, while still exploiting the advantages of the gas-kinetic discretization, such as computing full viscous fluxes for finite volume schemes on a simple two-point stencil.     

Simulating 2D Flows with Viscous Vortex Dynamics

Approximate solutions of the two-dimensional Navier–Stokes equation can be constructed as a superposition of viscous Lamb vortices. Requiring minimum deviation from the Navier–Stokes equation, one gets a set of ordinary differential equations for the positions, strength and width of the vortices. We calculate the deviation of the solution from the Navier–Stokes equation in the square norm. The time dependence of this error is determined and discussed.     

Cooling Process for Inelastic Boltzmann Equations for Hard Spheres, Part II: Self-Similar Solutions and Tail Behavior

We consider the spatially homogeneous Boltzmann equation for inelastic hard spheres, in the framework of so-called constant normal restitution coefficients. We prove the existence of self-similar solutions, and we give pointwise estimates on their tail. We also give general estimates on the tail and the regularity of generic solutions. In particular we prove Haff's law on the rate of decay of temperature, as well as the algebraic decay of singularities. The proofs are based on the regularity study of a rescaled problem, with the help of the regularity properties of the gain part of the Boltzmann collision integral, well-known in the elastic case, and which are extended here in the context of granular gases. Mathematics Subject Classification (2000): 76P05 Rarefied gas flows, Boltzmann equation [See also 82B40, 82C40, 82D05].     

超越阿贝尔优势近似和色等离子体的输运系数计算

给出了一种超越阿贝尔优势近似求解夸克胶子等离子体输运方程的方法，并用它计算了夸克、反夸克等离子体的输运系数，讨论了输运系数的非阿贝尔修正．     

Asymptotic analysis of the lattice Boltzmann equation

In this article we analyze the lattice Boltzmann equation (LBE) by using the asymptotic expansion technique. We first relate the LBE to the finite discrete-velocity model (FDVM) of the Boltzmann equation with the diffusive scaling. The analysis of this model directly leads to the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations, as opposed to the compressible Navier–Stokes equations obtained by the Chapman–Enskog analysis with convective scaling. We also apply the asymptotic analysis directly to the fully discrete LBE, as opposed to the usual practice of analyzing a continuous equation obtained through the Taylor-expansion of the LBE. This leads to a consistency analysis which provides order-by-order information about the numerical solution of the LBE. The asymptotic technique enables us to analyze the structure of the leading order errors and the accuracy of numerically derived quantities, such as vorticity. It also justifies the use of Richardson’s extrapolation method. As an example, a two-dimensional Taylor-vortex flow is used to validate our analysis. The numerical results agree very well with our analytic predictions.     

Kinetic Models for Granular Flow

The generalization of the Boltzmann and Enskog kinetic equations to allow inelastic collisions provides a basis for studies of granular media at a fundamental level. For elastic collisions the significant technical challenges presented in solving these equations have been circumvented by the use of corresponding model kinetic equations. The objective here is to discuss the formulation of model kinetic equations for the case of inelastic collisions. To illustrate the qualitative changes resulting from inelastic collisions the dynamics of a heavy particle in a gas of much lighter particles is considered first. The Boltzmann–Lorentz equation is reduced to a Fokker–Planck equation and its exact solution is obtained. Qualitative differences from the elastic case arise primarily from the cooling of the surrounding gas. The excitations, or physical spectrum, are no longer determined simply from the Fokker–Planck operator, but rather from a related operator incorporating the cooling effects. Nevertheless, it is shown that a diffusion mode dominates for long times just as in the elastic case. From the spectral analysis of the Fokker–Planck equation an associated kinetic model is obtained. In appropriate dimensionless variables it has the same form as the BGK kinetic model for elastic collisions, known to be an accurate representation of the Fokker–Planck equation. On the basis of these considerations, a kinetic model for the Boltzmann equation is derived. The exact solution for states near the homogeneous cooling state is obtained and the transport properties are discussed, including the relaxation toward hydrodynamics. As a second application of this model, it is shown that the exact solution for uniform shear flow arbitrarily far from equilibrium can be obtained from the corresponding known solution for elastic collisions. Finally, the kinetic model for the dense fluid Enskog equation is described.     

A Hybrid Kinetic-Quantum Model for Stationary Electron Transport

Interface conditions between a classical transport model described by the Boltzmann equation and a quantum model described by a set of Schrödinger equations are presented in the one-dimensional stationary setting. These interface conditions, derived thanks to an asymptotic analysis of the Wigner transform, are shown to be flux-preserving and are used to build a hybrid model consisting of a quantum zone surrounded by two classical ones. The hybrid model is shown to be well posed when the potential is either prescribed or computed self-consistently, and the semiclassical limit of the problem is shown to give the right interface conditions between two kinetic regions (the electrostatic potential being fixed). This model can be used to describe far-from-equilibrium electron transport in a resonant tunneling diode.     

Analytical and numerical study of coupled atomistic-continuum methods for fluids

The stability and convergence rate of coupled atomistic-continuum methods are studied analytically and numerically. These methods couple a continuum model with molecular dynamics through the exchange of boundary conditions in the continuum-particle overlapping region. Different coupling schemes, including velocity–velocity, flux–velocity, velocity–flux and flux–flux, are studied. It is found that the velocity–velocity and flux–velocity schemes are stable. The flux–flux scheme is weakly unstable. The stability of the velocity–flux scheme depends on the parameter T_c which is the length of the time interval between successive exchange of boundary conditions. It is stable when T_c is small and unstable when T_c is large. For steady-state problems, the flux–velocity scheme converges faster than the other coupling schemes.     

Scaling Exponents for Active Scalars

We provide bounds for Dirichlet quotients and for generalized structure functions for 3D active scalars and Navier–Stokes equations. These bounds put constraints on the possible extent of anomalous scaling.     

High-order compact exponential finite difference methods for convection–diffusion type problems

A class of high-order compact (HOC) exponential finite difference (FD) methods is proposed for solving one- and two-dimensional steady-state convection–diffusion problems. The newly proposed HOC exponential FD schemes have nonoscillation property and yield high accuracy approximation solution as well as are suitable for convection-dominated problems. The O(h⁴) compact exponential FD schemes developed for the one-dimensional (1D) problems produce diagonally dominant tri-diagonal system of equations which can be solved by applying the tridiagonal Thomas algorithm. For the two-dimensional (2D) problems, O(h⁴ + k⁴) compact exponential FD schemes are formulated on the nine-point 2D stencil and the line iterative approach with alternating direction implicit (ADI) procedure enables us to deal with diagonally dominant tridiagonal matrix equations which can be solved by application of the one-dimensional tridiagonal Thomas algorithm with a considerable saving in computing time. To validate the present HOC exponential FD methods, three linear and nonlinear problems, mostly with boundary or internal layers where sharp gradients may appear due to high Peclet or Reynolds numbers, are numerically solved. Comparisons are made between analytical solutions and numerical results for the currently proposed HOC exponential FD methods and some previously published HOC methods. The present HOC exponential FD methods produce excellent results for all test problems. It is shown that, besides including the excellent performances in computational accuracy, efficiency and stability, the present method has the advantage of better scale resolution. The method developed in this article is easy to implement and has been applied to obtain the numerical solutions of the lid driven cavity flow problem governed by the 2D incompressible Navier–Stokes equations using the stream function-vorticity formulation.