Maxwell boundary condition for discrete velocity methods: Macroscopic physical constraints and Lagrange multiplier-based implementation

Abstract

In this paper, we propose an algorithm that imposes macroscopic physical constraints with Lagrange multiplier approach in implementing the Maxwell boundary condition within the framework of the discrete velocity method. For the simulation of rarefied gas flows in the presence of solid walls with complex geometry, the distribution function in the reflection region of the wall surface needs to be constructed in the discrete velocity space, to fulfill the specular reflection in the Maxwell boundary condition. The construction process should not consist of interpolation only, but include certain macroscopic physical constraints at the wall surface, so as to correctly account for gas-surface interaction on a macroscopic level. We demonstrate that for the specular reflection, keeping the symmetry of the first three moments of the distribution function between the incident and reflected region is sufficient for maintaining the conservation of mass, momentum, and energy at the wall surface. Furthermore, to strictly satisfy macroscopic physical constraints, a Lagrange multiplier method is introduced into the construction of the distribution function to correct the pure interpolation solution. In addition, the construction process requires the inversion of a large and sparse matrix (of dimension N × N, where N is the number of points in the velocity space). To improve the computational efficiency, the matrix inversion is converted into that of a much smaller matrix, i.e. (D + 2) × (D + 2) in the d-dimensional physical space. A series of numerical experiments are conducted to examine the performance of the proposed algorithm under different flow conditions. We demonstrate that the results obtained by the proposed algorithm are more accurate than the pure interpolation solution, comparing with the benchmark data. Moreover, after the validation of our results with previous studies, we find that the method significantly enhances the conservation of total mass and energy, especially for flows in an enclosed domain.