A conservative discrete ordinate method for model Boltzmann equations

A class of conservative discrete ordinate method (C-DOM) for the Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook (BGK) model Boltzmann equation is presented. The C-DOM is the extension of the discrete ordinate method in my previous study (Yang and Huang, 1995 [3]). In the C-DOM, a conservative molecular collision process is employed and thus the conservation properties of the collision integral are maintained at the molecular level. For a broad range of Knudsen number, several test problems, including unsteady shock-tube problem and supersonic/hypersonic flows over circular cylinder, are utilized to demonstrate the performance and validity of the DOM and C-DOM. Results show that the C-DOM can greatly reduce the computer time and memory requirements in hypersonic rarefied gas flow computations. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.