Nonequilibrium Gas Dynamics and Molecular Simulation

This current and comprehensive book provides an updated treatment of molecular gas dynamics topics for aerospace engineers, or anyone researching high-temperature gas flows for hypersonic vehicles and propulsion systems. It demonstrates how the areas of quantum mechanics, kinetic theory, and statistical mechanics can combine in order to facilitate the study of nonequilibrium processes of internal energy relaxation and chemistry. All of these theoretical ideas are used to explain the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method, a numerical technique based on molecular simulation. Because this text provides comprehensive coverage of the physical models available for use in the DSMC method, in addition to the equations and algorithms required to implement the DSMC numerical method, readers will learn to solve nonequilibrium flow problems and perform computer simulations, and obtain a more complete understanding of various physical modeling options for DSMC than is available in other texts.

Author Biography

Iain D. Boyd received a doctorate in aeronautics and astronautics from the University of Southampton. He worked at NASA Ames Research Center and Cornell University, New York, before joining the University of Michigan. He has authored more than 200 journal articles and 300 conference papers. Professor Boyd is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, from which he also received the 1998 Lawrence Sperry Award. He has served on the editorial boards of Physics of Fluids, the Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, the Journal of Thermophysics and Heat Transfer, and Physical Review Fluids. Thomas E. Schwartzentruber received his Bachelor’s degree in engineering science and his Master’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Toronto. He then received his doctorate degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Michigan, advised by Professor Iain D. Boyd. For his doctorate work he received the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Orville and Wilbur Wright graduate award. After joining the faculty in the Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics department at the University of Minnesota, he received a Young Investigator Program Award from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the Taylor Career Development Award from the University of Minnesota, where he is currently an associate professor and Russell J. Penrose Faculty Fellow.