Modeling of rarefied gas flows with particle methods

Abstract

The design of spacecraft requires modeling of a wide range of rarefaction and non-equilibrium flow effects, like e.g. shock waves and strong expansion flows. While the classical Navier-Stokes approach becomes invalid in such flow regimes, particle methods can describe gases even far away from thermal equilibrium. In this talk we present an overview about various particle schemes which can be applied to model rarefied gas flows. The Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method as well as a recent kinetic Fokker-Planck (FP) model are described, and advantages and shortcomings of each method are outlined. Applications for each method are shown, e.g. the aerodynamic characterization of a slender reentry configuration.