Multi-species BGK models

Abstract: BGK (Bhatnagar–Gross–Krook) models have recently become a popular tool for simulating dilute, multi-species gases and plasmas.  The primary motivation for their development is to avoid computing with the Boltzmann collision operator, whose evaluation often dominates the cost of a kinetic calculation.  However, unlike in the single-species case, there is not an obvious choice of model parameters that recovers the desired conservation and entropy dissipation properties in the multi-species setting.  In this talk, I will present a few such models, the numerical tools used to compute them, and a few results to demonstrate their value.

 This presentation includes joint work with Jeff Haack (Los Alamos), Christian Klingenberg (Würzburg), Michael Murillo (Michigan State), Sandra Warnecke (Würzburg), and Marlies Pirner (Würzburg).

Speaker’s Bio: Cory Hauck is the Group Leader of the Multiscale Methods and Dynamics Group.  He received his Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics in 2006 from the University of Maryland. His research focuses on computational aspects of kinetic theory and hyperbolic partial differential equations, with applications in radiation transport, gas dynamics, and plasma physics.