A unified gas-kinetic wave-particle method for multiscale binary-species gas mixtures

Abstract

This paper presents a unified gas-kinetic wave-particle (UGKWP) method for simulating multiscale binary-species gas mixtures. Benefiting from direct modeling in a discretized space, the UGKWP method enables the automatic decomposition of the gas distribution function into analytical hydrodynamic waves and discrete particles, which respectively describe its near-equilibrium and non-equilibrium parts. This approach offers significant advantages for simulating various multiscale physical phenomena, such as hypersonic flows, plasma transport, and radiation transport. In this study, we employ the model proposed by Groppi et al. [EPL, 96 (2011) 64002] to calculate the macroscopic velocity and temperature of the local target equilibrium distribution function, thereby recovering the correct viscosity and diffusion coefficients in the continuum flow regime. To address the heat conduction coefficient, the Shakhov model is incorporated to correct the Prandtl number. Diffusion effects are accounted for not only in the source term via an operator-splitting method, but also in the flux evolution through the characteristic integral solution, while strictly maintaining consistency between the wave and particle descriptions. Furthermore, the microscopic model for high-speed particles is improved by utilizing a physically corrected collision time to determine their free-transport time. Through a series of numerical tests spanning the continuum to rarefied regimes, the proposed UGKWP method is shown to accurately capture the differences in velocity and temperature between different species. Notably, for hypersonic flows, the predicted wall pressure, shear stress, and heat flux coefficients agree well with DSMC results.