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Title: Using DSMC to compute the force on a particle in a rarefied gas flow.

Conference ·
OSTI ID:1028890

An approach is presented to compute the force on a spherical particle in a rarefied flow of a monatomic gas. This approach relies on the development of a Green's function that describes the force on a spherical particle in a delta-function molecular velocity distribution function. The gas-surface interaction model in this development allows incomplete accommodation of energy and tangential momentum. The force from an arbitrary molecular velocity distribution is calculated by computing the moment of the force Green's function in the same way that other macroscopic variables are determined. Since the molecular velocity distribution function is directly determined in the DSMC method, the force Green's function approach can be implemented straightforwardly in DSMC codes. A similar approach yields the heat transfer to a spherical particle in a rarefied gas flow. The force Green's function is demonstrated by application to two problems. First, the drag force on a spherical particle at arbitrary temperature and moving at arbitrary velocity through an equilibrium motionless gas is found analytically and numerically. Second, the thermophoretic force on a motionless particle in a motionless gas with a heat flux is found analytically and numerically. Good agreement is observed in both situations.

Research Organization:
Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), Albuquerque, NM, and Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
DOE Contract Number:
AC04-94AL85000
OSTI ID:
1028890
Report Number(s):
SAND2002-2070C; TRN: US201122%%594
Resource Relation:
Conference: Proposed for presentation at the 23rd International Symposium on Rarefied Gas Dynamics held July 20-25, 2002 in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada.
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English