A Hybrid Fokker-Planck-DSMC Solution Algorithm for the Whole Range of Knudsen Numbers

In this work, we present a hybrid algorithm based on the Fokker-Planck (FP) kinetic model and direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) for studies of rarefied gas flows. A particle based FP solution algorithm for rarefied gas flow simulations has recently been devised by the authors. The motivation behind the FP approximation is purely computational, i.e. due to the fact that the resulting random processes are continuous in time the computational cost of the corresponding time integration becomes independent of the Knudsen number. However, the method faces limitations for flows with very high Knudsen numbers (larger than approximately 5). In the method presented here, the FP approach is coupled with DSMC in order to gain from the efficiency of the FP model and from the accuracy of DSMC at small and large cell based Knudsen numbers, respectively.