To probe both the hydrodynamic nonequilibrium (HNE) and thermodynamic nonequilibrium (TNE) in the combustion process, a two-dimensional multiple-relaxation-time (MRT) version of lattice Boltzmann kinetic model (LBKM) for combustion phenomena is presented. The chemical energy released in the progress of combustion is dynamically coupled into the system by adding a chemical term to the LB kinetic equation. Aside from describing the evolutions of the conserved quantities, the density, momentum, and energy, which are what the Navier-Stokes model describes, the MRT-LBKM presents also a coarse-grained description on the evolutions of some nonconserved quantities. The current model works for both subsonic and supersonic flows with or without chemical reaction. In this model, both the specific-heat ratio and the Prandtl number are flexible, the TNE effects are naturally presented in each simulation step. The model is verified and validated via well-known benchmark tests. As an initial application, various nonequilibrium behaviors, including the complex interplays between various HNEs, between various TNEs, and between the HNE and TNE, around the detonation wave in the unsteady and steady one-dimensional detonation processes are preliminarily probed. It is found that the system viscosity (or heat conductivity) decreases the local TNE, but increases the global TNE around the detonation wave, that even locally, the system viscosity (or heat conductivity) results in two kinds of competing trends, to increase and to decrease the TNE effects. The physical reason is that the viscosity (or heat conductivity) takes part in both the thermodynamic and hydrodynamic responses.

We investigate the effects of viscosity and heat conduction on the onset and growth of Kelvin–Helmholtz instability (KHI) via an efficient discrete Boltzmann model. Technically, two effective approaches are presented to quantitatively analyze and understand the configurations and kinetic processes. One is to determine the thickness of mixing layers through tracking the distributions and evolutions of the thermodynamic nonequilibrium (TNE) measures; the other is to evaluate the growth rate of KHI from the slopes of morphological functionals. Physically, it is found that the time histories of width of mixing layer, TNE intensity, and boundary length show high correlation and attain their maxima simultaneously. The viscosity effects are twofold, stabilize the KHI, and enhance both the local and global TNE intensities. Contrary to the monotonically inhibiting effects of viscosity, the heat conduction effects firstly refrain then enhance the evolution afterwards. The physical reasons are analyzed and presented.

We present a polar coordinate lattice Boltzmann kinetic model for compressible flows. A method to recover the continuum distribution function from the discrete distribution function is indicated. Within the model, a hybrid scheme being similar to, but different from, the operator splitting is proposed. The temporal evolution is calculated analytically, and the convection term is solved via a modified Warming-Beam (MWB) scheme. Within the MWB scheme a suitable switch function is introduced. The current model works not only for subsonic flows but also for supersonic flows. It is validated and verified via the following well-known benchmark tests: (i) the rotational flow, (ii) the stable shock tube problem, (iii) the Richtmyer-Meshkov (RM) instability, and (iv) the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. As an original application, we studied the nonequilibrium characteristics of the system around three kinds of interfaces, the shock wave, the rarefaction wave, and the material interface, for two specific cases. In one of the two cases, the material interface is initially perturbed, and consequently the RM instability occurs. It is found that the macroscopic effects due to deviating from thermodynamic equilibrium around the material interface differ significantly from those around the mechanical interfaces. The initial perturbation at the material interface enhances the coupling of molecular motions in different degrees of freedom. The amplitude of deviation from thermodynamic equilibrium around the shock wave is much higher than those around the rarefaction wave and material interface. By comparing each component of the high-order moments and its value in equilibrium, we can draw qualitatively the main behavior of the actual distribution function. These results deepen our understanding of the mechanical and material interfaces from a more fundamental level, which is indicative for constructing macroscopic models and other kinds of kinetic models.

We propose a multi-component discrete Boltzmann model (DBM) for premixed, nonpremixed, or partially premixed nonequilibrium reactive flows. This model is suitable for both subsonic and supersonic flows with or without chemical reaction and/or external force. A two-dimensional sixteen-velocity model is constructed for the DBM. In the hydrodynamic limit, the DBM recovers the modified Navier-Stokes equations for reacting species in a force field. Compared to standard lattice Boltzmann models, the DBM presents not only more accurate hydrodynamic quantities, but also detailed nonequilibrium effects that are essential yet long-neglected by traditional fluid dynamics. Apart from nonequilibrium terms (viscous stress and heat flux) in conventional models, specific hydrodynamic and thermodynamic nonequilibrium quantities (high order kinetic moments and their departure from equilibrium) are dynamically obtained from the DBM in a straightforward way. Due to its generality, the developed methodology is applicable to a wide range of phenomena across many energy technologies, emissions reduction, environmental protection, mining accident prevention, chemical and process industry.