A New Energy Flux Model in the DSMC-IP Method for Nonequilibrium Flows

A new energy flux model is proposed for use in the Information Preservation (IP) method. The primary objective of the present study is to relax the local thermal equilibrium assumption in the previous Information Preservation method. The new IP model is constructed by assuming that the real molecules represented by a simulation particle follow a Maxwellian distribution defined by the preserved velocity and temperature. The local velocity distribution function in a cell is then assumed to be the arithmetic average of all the Maxwellian distributions within the cell. Energy flux across a cell interface can therefore be evaluated analytically. Simulations of normal shock waves over a wide range of Mach number and in different gases are performed as examples. The results show that the density predicted by the new model is in very good agreement with other numerical methods and experimental measurements, whereas temperature and velocity are only in fair agreement.