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The purpose of this work is to develop a universal computer program (solver) which solves kinetic Boltzmann equation for simulations of rarefied gas flows in complexly shaped devices. The structure of the solver is described in details. Its efficiency is demonstrated on an example of calculations of a modern many tubes Knudsen pump. The kinetic Boltzmann equation is solved by finite-difference method on discrete grid in spatial and velocity spaces. The differential advection operator is approximated by finite difference method. The calculation of the collision integral is based on the conservative projection method.

In the developed computational program the unstructured spatial mesh is generated using GMSH and may include prisms, tetrahedrons, hexahedrons and pyramids. The mesh is denser in areas of flow with large gradients of gas parameters. A three-dimensional velocity grid consists of cubic cells of equal volume.

A huge amount of calculations requires effective parallelization of the algorithm which is implemented in the program with the use of Message Passing Interface (MPI) technology. An information transfer from one node to another is implemented as a kind of boundary condition. As a result, every MPI node contains the information about only its part of the grid.

The main result of the work is presented in the graph of pressure difference in 2 reservoirs connected by a multitube Knudsen pump from Knudsen number. This characteristic of the Knudsen pump obtained by numerical methods shows the quality of the pump. Distributions of pressure, temperature and gas concentration in a steady state inside the pump and the reservoirs are presented as well.

The correctness of the solver is checked using two special test solutions of more simple boundary problems — test with temperature distribution between 2 planes with different temperatures and test with conservation of total gas mass.

The correctness of the obtained data for multitube Knudsen pump is checked using denser spatial and velocity grids, using more collisions in collision integral per time step.

We study the computational properties of a parametric class of finite-volume schemes with customizable dissipative properties with splitting by physical processes into Lagrangian, Eulerian, and the final stages (the hybrid large-particle method). The method has a second-order approximation in space and time on smooth solutions. The regularization of a numerical solution at the Lagrangian stage is performed by nonlinear correction of artificial viscosity. Regardless of the grid resolution, the artificial viscosity value tends to zero outside the zone of discontinuities and extremes in the solution. At Eulerian and final stages, primitive variables (density, velocity, and total energy) are first reconstructed by an additive combination of upwind and central approximations weighted by a flux limiter. Then numerical divergent fluxes are formed from them. In this case, discrete analogs of conservation laws are performed.

The analysis of dissipative properties of the method using known viscosity and flow limiters, as well as their linear combination, is performed. The resolution of the scheme and the quality of numerical solutions are demonstrated by examples of two-dimensional benchmarks: a gas flow around the step with Mach numbers 3, 10 and 20, the double Mach reflection of a strong shock wave, and the implosion problem. The influence of the scheme viscosity of the method on the numerical reproduction of a gases interface instability is studied. It is found that a decrease of the dissipation level in the implosion problem leads to the symmetric solution destruction and formation of a chaotic instability on the contact surface.

Numerical solutions are compared with the results of other authors obtained using higher-order approximation schemes: CABARET, HLLC (Harten Lax van Leer Contact), CFLFh (CFLF hybrid scheme), JT (centered scheme with limiter by Jiang and Tadmor), PPM (Piecewise Parabolic Method), WENO5 (weighted essentially non-oscillatory scheme), RKGD (Runge –Kutta Discontinuous Galerkin), hybrid weighted nonlinear schemes CCSSR-HW4 and CCSSR-HW6. The advantages of the hybrid large-particle method include extended possibilities for solving hyperbolic and mixed types of problems, a good ratio of dissipative and dispersive properties, a combination of algorithmic simplicity and high resolution in problems with complex shock-wave structure, both instability and vortex formation at interfaces.

For a non-homogeneous model transport equation with source terms, the stability analysis of a linear hybrid scheme (a combination of upwind and central approximations) is performed. Stability conditions are obtained that depend on the hybridity parameter, the source intensity factor (the product of intensity per time step), and the weight coefficient of the linear combination of source power on the lower- and upper-time layer. In a nonlinear case for the non-equilibrium by velocities and temperatures equations of gas suspension motion, the linear stability analysis was confirmed by calculation. It is established that the maximum permissible Courant number of the hybrid large-particle method of the second order of accuracy in space and time with an implicit account of friction and heat exchange between gas and particles does not depend on the intensity factor of interface interactions, the grid spacing and the relaxation times of phases (K-stability). In the traditional case of an explicit method for calculating the source terms, when a dimensionless intensity factor greater than 10, there is a catastrophic (by several orders of magnitude) decrease in the maximum permissible Courant number, in which the calculated time step becomes unacceptably small.

On the basic ratios of Riemann’s problem in the equilibrium heterogeneous medium, we obtained an asymptotically exact self-similar solution of the problem of interaction of a shock wave with a layer of gas-suspension to which converge the numerical solution of two-velocity two-temperature dynamics of gassuspension when reducing the size of dispersed particles.

The dynamics of the shock wave in gas and its interaction with a limited gas suspension layer for different sizes of dispersed particles: 0.1, 2, and 20 ìm were studied. The problem is characterized by two discontinuities decay: reflected and refracted shock waves at the left boundary of the layer, reflected rarefaction wave, and a past shock wave at the right contact edge. The influence of relaxation processes (dimensionless phase relaxation times) to the flow of a gas suspension is discussed. For small particles, the times of equalization of the velocities and temperatures of the phases are small, and the relaxation zones are sub-grid. The numerical solution at characteristic points converges with relative accuracy $O \, (10^{-4})$ to self-similar solutions.

In a number of fundamental and practical problems, it is necessary to describe the dynamics of the motion of complexshaped particles in a high-speed gas flow. An example is the movement of coal particles behind the front of a strong shock wave during an explosion in a coal mine. The paper is devoted to numerical simulation of the dynamics of translational and rotational motion of a square-shaped body, as an example of a particle of a more complex shape than a round one, in a supersonic flow behind a passing shock wave. The formulation of the problem approximately corresponds to the experiments of Professor V. M. Boiko and Professor S. V. Poplavski (ITAM SB RAS).

Mathematical model is based on the two-dimensional Euler equations, which are solved in a region with varying boundaries. The defining system of equations is integrated using an explicit scheme and the Cartesian grid method which was developed and verified earlier. The computational algorithm at the time integration step includes: determining the step value, calculating the dynamics of the body movement (determining the force and moment acting on the body; determining the linear and angular velocities of the body; calculating the new coordinates of the body), calculating the gas parameters. To calculate numerical fluxes through the edges of the cell intersected by the boundaries of the body, we use a two-wave approximation for solving the Riemann problem and the Steger – Warming scheme.

The movement of a square with a side of 6 mm was initiated by the passage of a shock wave with a Mach number of 3,0 propagating in a flat channel 800 mm long and 60 mm wide. The channel was filled with air at low pressure. Different initial orientation of the square relative to the channel axis was considered. It is found that the initial position of the square with its side across the flow is less stable during its movement than the initial position with a diagonal across the flow. In this case, the calculated results qualitatively correspond to experimental observations. For the intermediate initial positions of a square, a typical mode of its motion is described, consisting of oscillations close to harmonic, turning into rotation with a constant average angular velocity. During the movement of the square, there is an average monotonous decrease in the distance between the center of mass and the center of pressure to zero.

An algorithm is proposed to identify parameters of a 2D vortex structure used on information about the flow velocity at a finite (small) set of reference points. The approach is based on using a set of point vortices as a model system and minimizing a functional that compares the model and known sets of velocity vectors in the space of model parameters. For numerical implementation, the method of gradient descent with step size control, approximation of derivatives by finite differences, and the analytical expression of the velocity field induced by the point vortex model are used. An experimental analysis of the operation of the algorithm on test flows is carried out: one and a system of several point vortices, a Rankine vortex, and a Lamb dipole. According to the velocity fields of test flows, the velocity vectors utilized for identification were arranged in a randomly distributed set of reference points (from 3 to 200 pieces). Using the computations, it was determined that: the algorithm converges to the minimum from a wide range of initial approximations; the algorithm converges in all cases when the reference points are located in areas where the streamlines of the test and model systems are topologically equivalent; if the streamlines of the systems are not topologically equivalent, then the percentage of successful calculations decreases, but convergence can also take place; when the method converges, the coordinates of the vortices of the model system are close to the centers of the vortices of the test configurations, and in many cases, the values of their circulations also; con-vergence depends more on location than on the number of vectors used for identification. The results of the study allow us to recommend the proposed algorithm for identifying 2D vortex structures whose streamlines are topologically close to systems of point vortices.

The paper considers the problem of stationary mixed convection and heat transfer of a viscous heatconducting fluid in a plane square lid-driven cavity. The hot top cover of the cavity has any temperature $T_\mathrm{H}$ and cold bottom wall has temperature $T_\mathrm{0} (T_\mathrm{H} > T_\mathrm{0})$, whereas in contrast the side walls are insulated. The fact that the fluid density can take arbitrary values depending on the amount of overheating of the cavity cover is a feature of the problem. The mathematical formulation includes the Navier–Stokes equations in the ’velocity–pressure’ variables and the heat balance equation which take into account the incompressibility of the fluid flow and the influence of volumetric buoyancy force. The difference approximation of the original differential equations has been performed by the control volume method. Numerical solutions of the problem have been obtained on the $501 \times 501$ grid for the following values of similarity parameters: Prandtl number Pr = 0.70; Reynolds number Re = 100 and 1000; Richardson number Ri = 0.1, 1, and 10; and the relative cover overheating $(T_\mathrm{H}-T_\mathrm{0})/T_\mathrm{0} = 0, 1, 2, 3$. Detailed flow patterns in the form of streamlines and isotherms of relative overheating of the fluid flow are given in the work. It is shown that the increase in the value of the Richardson number (the increase in the influence of buoyancy force) leads to a fundamental change in the structure of the liquid stream. It is also found out that taking into account the variability of the liquid density leads to weakening of the influence of Ri growth on the transformation of the flow structure. The change in density in a closed volume is the cause of this weakening, since it always leads to the existence of zones with negative buoyancy in the presence of a volumetric force. As a consequence, the competition of positive and negative volumetric forces leads in general to weakening of the buoyancy effect. The behaviors of heat exchange coefficient (Nusselt number) and coefficient of friction along the bottom wall of the cavity depending on the parameters of the problem are also analyzed. It is revealed that the greater the values of the Richardson number are, the greater, ceteris paribus, the influence of density variation on these coefficients is.

Mathematical models of gas dynamics and its computational industry, in our opinion, are far from perfect. We will look at this problem from the point of view of a clear probabilistic micro-model of a gas from hard spheres, relying on both the theory of random processes and the classical kinetic theory in terms of densities of distribution functions in phase space, namely, we will first construct a system of nonlinear stochastic differential equations (SDE), and then a generalized random and nonrandom integro-differential Boltzmann equation taking into account correlations and fluctuations. The key feature of the initial model is the random nature of the intensity of the jump measure and its dependence on the process itself.

Briefly recall the transition to increasingly coarse meso-macro approximations in accordance with a decrease in the dimensionalization parameter, the Knudsen number. We obtain stochastic and non-random equations, first in phase space (meso-model in terms of the Wiener — measure SDE and the Kolmogorov – Fokker – Planck equations), and then — in coordinate space (macro-equations that differ from the Navier – Stokes system of equations and quasi-gas dynamics systems). The main difference of this derivation is a more accurate averaging by velocity due to the analytical solution of stochastic differential equations with respect to the Wiener measure, in the form of which an intermediate meso-model in phase space is presented. This approach differs significantly from the traditional one, which uses not the random process itself, but its distribution function. The emphasis is placed on the transparency of assumptions during the transition from one level of detail to another, and not on numerical experiments, which contain additional approximation errors.

The theoretical power of the microscopic representation of macroscopic phenomena is also important as an ideological support for particle methods alternative to difference and finite element methods.

In case of vessel wall damage or contact of blood plasma with a foreign surface, the chain of chemical reactions called coagulation cascade is launched that leading to the formation of a fibrin clot. A key enzyme of the coagulation cascade is thrombin, which catalyzes formation of fibrin from fibrinogen. The distribution of thrombin concentration in blood plasma determines spatio-temporal dynamics of clot formation. Contact pathway of blood coagulation triggers the production of thrombin in response to the contact with a negatively charged surface. If the concentration of thrombin generated at this stage is large enough, further production of thrombin takes place due to positive feedback loops of the coagulation cascade. As a result, thrombin propagates in plasma cleaving fibrinogen that results in the clot formation. The concentration profile and the speed of propagation of thrombin are constant and do not depend on the type of the initial activator.

Such behavior of the coagulation system is well described by the traveling wave solutions in a system of “reaction – diffusion” equations on the concentration of blood factors involved in the coagulation cascade. In this study, we carried out detailed analysis of the mathematical model describing the main reaction of the intrinsic pathway of coagulation cascade.We formulate necessary and sufficient conditions of the existence of the traveling wave solutions. For the considered model the existence of such solutions is equivalent to the existence of the wave solutions in the simplified one-equation model describing the dynamics of thrombin concentration derived under the quasi-stationary approximation.

Simplified model also allows us to obtain analytical estimate of the thrombin propagation rate in the considered model. The speed of the traveling wave for one equation is estimated using the narrow reaction zone method and piecewise linear approximation. The resulting formulas give a good approximation of the velocity of propagation of thrombin in the simplified, as well as in the original model.

The biological structure is considered as an open nonequilibrium system which properties can be described on the basis of kinetic equations. New problems with nonequilibrium boundary conditions are introduced. The nonequilibrium distribution tends gradually to an equilibrium state. The region of spatial inhomogeneity has a scale depending on the rate of mass transfer in the open system and the characteristic time of metabolism. In the proposed approximation, the internal energy of the motion of molecules is much less than the energy of translational motion. Or in other terms we can state that the kinetic energy of the average blood velocity is substantially higher than the energy of chaotic motion of the same particles. We state that the relaxation problem models a living system. The flow of entropy to the system decreases in downstream, this corresponds to Shrödinger’s general ideas that the living system “feeds on” negentropy. We introduce a quantity that determines the complexity of the biosystem, more precisely, this is the difference between the nonequilibrium kinetic entropy and the equilibrium entropy at each spatial point integrated over the entire spatial region. Solutions to the problems of spatial relaxation allow us to estimate the size of biosystems as regions of nonequilibrium. The results are compared with empirical data, in particular, for mammals we conclude that the larger the size of animals, the smaller the specific energy of metabolism. This feature is reproduced in our model since the span of the nonequilibrium region is larger in the system where the reaction rate is shorter, or in terms of the kinetic approach, the longer the relaxation time of the interaction between the molecules. The approach is also used for estimation of a part of a living system, namely a green leaf. The problems of aging as degradation of an open nonequilibrium system are considered. The analogy is related to the structure, namely, for a closed system, the equilibrium of the structure is attained for the same molecules while in the open system, a transition occurs to the equilibrium of different particles, which change due to metabolism. Two essentially different time scales are distinguished, the ratio of which is approximately constant for various animal species. Under the assumption of the existence of these two time scales the kinetic equation splits in two equations, describing the metabolic (stationary) and “degradative” (nonstationary) parts of the process.

The viscoelastic fluid flow model across a porous medium has captivated the interest of many contemporary researchers due to its industrial and technical uses, such as food processing, paper and textile coating, packed bed reactors, the cooling effect of transpiration and the dispersion of pollutants through aquifers. This article focuses on the influence of variable viscosity and viscoelasticity on the magnetohydrodynamic oscillatory flow of second-order fluid through thermally radiating wavy walls. A mathematical model for this fluid flow, including governing equations and boundary conditions, is developed using the usual Boussinesq approximation. The governing equations are transformed into a system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations using non-similarity transformations. The numerical results obtained by applying finite-difference code based on the Lobatto IIIa formula generated by bvp4c solver are compared to the semi-analytical solutions for the velocity, temperature and concentration profiles obtained using the homotopy perturbation method (HPM). The effect of flow parameters on velocity, temperature, concentration profiles, skin friction coefficient, heat and mass transfer rate, and skin friction coefficient is examined and illustrated graphically. The physical parameters governing the fluid flow profoundly affected the resultant flow profiles except in a few cases. By using the slope linear regression method, the importance of considering the viscosity variation parameter and its interaction with the Lorentz force in determining the velocity behavior of the viscoelastic fluid model is highlighted. The percentage increase in the velocity profile of the viscoelastic model has been calculated for different ranges of viscosity variation parameters. Finally, the results are validated numerically for the skin friction coefficient and Nusselt number profiles.