The Application of Discontinuous Galerkin Space and Velocity Discretization to Model Kinetic Equations (PREPRINT)

Abstract

An approach based on a discontinuous Galerkin discretization is proposed for the Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook model kinetic equation. This approach allows for a high order polynomial approximation of molecular velocity distribution function both in spatial and velocity variables. It is applied to model normal shock wave and heat transfer problems. Convergence of solutions with respect to the number of spatial cells and velocity bins is studied, with the degree of polynomial approximation ranging from zero to four in the physical space variable and from zero to eight in the velocity variable. This approach is found to conserve mass, momentum and energy when high degree polynomial approximations are used in the velocity space. For the shock wave problem, the solution is shown to exhibit accelerated convergence with respect to the velocity variable. Convergence with respect to the spatial variable is in agreement with the order of the polynomial approximation used. For the heat transfer problem, it was observed that convergence of solutions obtained by high degree polynomial approximations is only second order with respect to the resolution in the spatial variable. This is attributed to the temperature jump at the wall in the solutions. The shock wave and heat transfer solutions are in excellent agreement with the solutions obtained by a conservative finite volume scheme.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Oct 07, 2009
Accession Number
ADA513707

Entities

People

  • Alexander Alekseenko
  • Natalia Gimelshein
  • Sergey F. Gimelshein

Organizations

  • Air Force Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Sensors

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force Research Laboratories
  • Boltzmann Equation
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics
  • Computational Science
  • Convergence
  • Differential Equations
  • Distribution Functions
  • Energy
  • Equations
  • Fluid Dynamics
  • Gas Flow
  • Gas Surface Interactions
  • Heat Transfer
  • Knudsen Number
  • Momentum
  • Polynomials
  • Shock Waves

Fields of Study

  • Mathematics

Readers

  • Finite Element Method (FEM) for solving Partial Differential Equations (PDEs)
  • Plasma Physics / Magnetohydrodynamics

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Hall-Effect Thruster