A new closure for Grad’s 13 moment equations is presented that adds terms of Super-Burnett order to the balances of pressure deviator and heat flux vector. The additional terms are derived from equations for higher moments by means of the distribution function for 13 moments. The resulting system of equations contains the Burnett and Super-Burnett equations when expanded in a series in the Knudsen number. However, other than the Burnett and Super-Burnett equations, the new set of equations is linearly stable for all wavelengths and frequencies. Dispersion relation and damping for the new equations agree better with experimental data than those for the Navier–Stokes–Fourier equations, or the original 13 moments system. The new equations also allow the description of Knudsen boundary layers.

This article discusses the development of continuum models to describe processes in gases in which the particle collisions cannot maintain thermal equilibrium. Such a situation typically is present in rarefied or diluted gases, for flows in microscopic settings, or in general whenever the Knudsen number—the ratio between the mean free path of the particles and a macroscopic length scale—becomes significant. The continuum models are based on the stochastic description of the gas by Boltzmann's equation in kinetic gas theory. With moment approximations, extended fluid dynamic equations can be derived, such as the regularized 13-moment equations. Moment equations are introduced in detail, and typical results are reviewed for channel flow, cavity flow, and flow past a sphere in the low–Mach number setting for which both evolution equations and boundary conditions are well established. Conversely, nonlinear, high-speed processes require special closures that are still under development. Current approaches are ...

Recently a new system of field equations for the accurate description of flows in rarefied gases, called regularized 13-moment equations, was obtained by means of a hybrid gas kinetic approach. The first part of this paper discusses the relationship of the new system to classical high-order theories like the Burnett and super-Burnett equations as well as to modified models like the augmented and regularized Burnett equations. In the second part, shock structure calculations with the new theory are presented and compared to direct-simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) solutions and to solutions of the Burnett models. Owing to additional higher-order dissipation in the system, the profiles are smooth for any Mach number, in contrast to the results of Grad's 13-moment case. The results show reliable quantitative agreement with DSMC simulations for Mach numbers up to $M_{0}\approx 3.0$. The agreement is better for Maxwell molecules than for hard spheres. The results of the augmented Burnett equations are comparable, but these equations are shown to be spatially unstable. Additionally, a validiation procedure for the new equations is presented by investigating the positivity of Grad's distribution function.

In this study, we propose a non-linear continuous stochastic velocity process for simulations of monatomic gas flows. The model equation is derived from a Fokker–Planck approximation of the Boltzmann equation. By introducing a cubic non-linear drift term, the model leads to the correct Prandtl number of 2/3 for monatomic gas, which is crucial to study heat transport phenomena. Moreover, a highly accurate scheme to evolve the computational particles in velocity- and physical space is devised. An important property of this integration scheme is that it ensures energy conservation and honours the tortuosity of particle trajectories. Especially in situations with small to moderate Knudsen numbers, this allows to proceed with much larger time steps than with direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC), i.e. the mean collision time not necessarily has to be resolved, and thus leads to more efficient simulations. Another computational advantage is that no direct collisions have to be calculated in the proposed algorithm. For validation, different micro-channel flow test cases in the near continuum and transitional regimes were considered. Detailed comparisons with DSMC for Knudsen numbers between 0.07 and 2 reveal that the new solution algorithm based on the Fokker–Planck approximation for the collision operator can accurately predict molecular stresses and heat flux and thus also gas velocity and temperature profiles. Moreover, for the Knudsen Paradox, it is shown that good agreement with DSMC is achieved up to a Knudsen number of about 5.