Assessment of Translational Anisotropy in Rarefied Flows Using Kinetic Approaches (Preprint)

Abstract

Several distinct modeling approaches are tested for their ability to resolve translational nonequilibrium phenomena that are common to (but not unique to) rarefied gas dynamic flowfields. The methods considered include DSMC, BGK, ES-BGK, Navier-Stokes, and an anisotropic model (based on a first order expansion of the Boltzmann equation for a Maxwell gas possessing an anisotropic Maxwellian distribution function). For the large Mach number normal shock wave, ES-BGK shows fair-to-good agreement with DSMC, while numerical solution of the anisotropic model equations are rather poor. A semi-analytical solution for the anisotropic model compares rather well with DSMC results for the normal shock wave, suggesting that the equation set may indeed be quantitatively useful for modeling translational nonequilibrium. For the hypersonic sphere-cone flowfield, comparison of the directly sampled shear stress with the Navier-Stokes (Chapman-Enskog) and anisotropic value evaluated using the DSMC macroscopic properties shows that the anisotropic result offers qualitative improvement over the NS value over a broad range of rarefaction.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 19, 2008
Accession Number
ADA484437

Entities

People

  • D. C. Wadsworth
  • I. J. Wysong
  • N. E. Gimelshein
  • S. F. Gimelshein

Organizations

  • Air Force Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Agreements
  • Air Force Research Laboratories
  • Boltzmann Equation
  • Boundary Layer
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics
  • Computational Science
  • Distribution Functions
  • Equations
  • Gases
  • Mach Number
  • Monte Carlo Method
  • Navier Stokes Equations
  • Rarefied Gases
  • Shear Stresses
  • Shock
  • Shock Waves
  • Stresses

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Fluid Dynamics.
  • Fluid Mechanics and Fluid Dynamics.

Technology Areas

  • Hypersonics
  • Hypersonics - Hypersonic Flight
  • Hypersonics - Hypersonic Flow