2D hybrid meshes for direct simulation Monte Carlo solvers

Abstract

The efficiency of the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method decreases considerably if gas is not rarefied. In order to extend the application range of the DSMC method towards non-rarefied gas regimes, the computational efficiency of the DSMC method should be increased further. One of the most time consuming parts of the DSMC method is to determine which DSMC molecules are in close proximity. If this information is calculated quickly, the efficiency of the DSMC method will be increased. Although some meshless methods are proposed, mostly structured or non-structured meshes are used to obtain this information. The simplest DSMC solvers are limited with the structured meshes. In these types of solvers, molecule indexing according to the positions can be handled very fast using simple arithmetic operations. But structured meshes are geometry dependent. Complicated geometries require the use of unstructured meshes. In this case, DSMC molecules are traced cell-by-cell. Different cell-by-cell tracing techniques exist. But, these techniques require complicated trigonometric operations or search algorithms. Both techniques are computationally expensive. In this study, a hybrid mesh structure is proposed. Hybrid meshes are both less dependent on the geometry like unstructured meshes and computationally efficient like structured meshes.