skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: When do we need attractive-repulsive intermolecular potentials?

Journal Article · · AIP Conference Proceedings
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4902583· OSTI ID:22390555
 [1]
  1. School of Engineering, University of California, Merced, Merced, CA 95343 (United States)

The role of attractive-repulsive interactions in direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) simulations is studied by comparing with traditional purely repulsive interactions. The larger collision cross section of the long-range LJ potential is shown to result in a higher collision frequency and hence a lower mean free path, by at least a factor of two, for given conditions. This results in a faster relaxation to equilibrium as is shown by comparing the fourth and sixth moments of the molecular velocity distribution obtained using 0-D DSMC simulations. A 1-D Fourier-Couette flow with a large temperature and velocity difference between the walls is used to show that matching transport properties will result in identical solutions using both LJPA and VSS models in the near-continuum regime. However, flows in the transitional regime with Knudsen number, Kn ∼ 0.5 show a dependence on the intermolecular potential in spite of matching the viscosity coefficient due to differences in the collision frequency. Attractive-repulsive potentials should be used when both transport coefficients and collision frequencies should be matched.

OSTI ID:
22390555
Journal Information:
AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1628, Issue 1; Conference: 29. International Symposium on Rarefied Gas Dynamics, Xi'an (China), 13-18 Jul 2014; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-243X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English