Linearized lattice Boltzmann method for micro- and nanoscale flow and heat transfer

Variational solution to the lattice Boltzmann method for Couette flow

Literature studies of the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) demonstrate hydrodynamics beyond the continuum limit. This includes exact analytical solutions to the LBM, for the bulk velocity and shear stress of Couette flow under diffuse reflection at the walls through the solution of equivalent moment equations. We prove that the bulk velocity and shear stress of Couette flow with Maxwell-type boundary conditions at the walls, as specified by two-dimensional isothermal lattice Boltzmann models, are inherently linear in Mach number. Our finding enables a systematic variational approach to be formulated that exhibits superior computational efficiency than the previously reported moment method. Specifically, the number of partial differential equations (PDEs) in the variational method grows linearly with quadrature order while the number of moment method PDEs grows quadratically. The variational method directly yields a system of linear PDEs that provide exact analytical solutions to the LBM bulk velocity field and shear stress for Couette flow with Maxwell-type boundary conditions. It is anticipated that this variational approach will find utility in calculating analytical solutions for novel lattice Boltzmann quadrature schemes and other flows.

Origin of spurious oscillations in lattice Boltzmann simulations of oscillatory noncontinuum gas flows

Oscillatory noncontinuum gas flows at the micro and nanoscales are characterized by two dimensionless groups: a dimensionless molecular length scale, the Knudsen number Kn, and a dimensionless frequency θ, relating the oscillatory frequency to the molecular collision frequency. In a recent study [Shi et al., Phys. Rev. E 89, 033305 (2014)10.1103/PhysRevE.89.033305], the accuracy of the lattice Boltzmann (LB) method for simulating these flows at moderate-to-large Kn and θ was examined. In these cases, the LB method exhibits spurious numerical oscillations that cannot be removed through the use of discrete particle velocities drawn from higher-order Gauss-Hermite quadrature. Here, we identify the origin of these spurious effects and formulate a method to minimize their presence. This proposed method splits the linearized Boltzmann Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook (BGK) equation into two equations: (1) a homogeneous "gain-free equation" that can be solved directly, containing terms responsible for the spurious oscillations; and (2) an inhomogeneous "remainder equation" with homogeneous boundary conditions (i.e., stationary boundaries) that is solved using the conventional LB algorithm. This proposed "splitting method" is validated using published high-accuracy numerical solutions to the linearized Boltzmann BGK equation where excellent agreement is observed.

Lattice Boltzmann models based on the vielbein formalism for the simulation of flows in curvilinear geometries

In this paper, we consider the Boltzmann equation with respect to orthonormal vielbein fields in conservative form. This formalism allows the use of arbitrary coordinate systems to describe the space geometry, as well as of an adapted coordinate system in the momentum space, which is linked to the physical space through the use of vielbeins. Taking advantage of the conservative form, we derive the macroscopic equations in a covariant tensor notation, and show that the hydrodynamic limit can be obtained via the Chapman-Enskog expansion in the Bhatnaghar-Gross-Krook approximation for the collision term. We highlight that in this formalism, the component of the momentum which is perpendicular to some curved boundary can be isolated as a separate momentum coordinate, for which the half-range Gauss-Hermite quadrature can be applied. We illustrate the capabilities of this formalism by considering two applications. The first one is the circular Couette flow between rotating coaxial cylinders, for which benchmarking data are available for all degrees of rarefaction, from the hydrodynamic to the ballistic regime. The second application concerns the flow in a gradually expanding channel. We employ finite-difference lattice Boltzmann models based on half-range Gauss-Hermite quadratures for the implementation of diffuse reflection, together with the fifth-order weighted essentially nonoscillatory and third-order total variation diminishing Runge-Kutta numerical methods for the advection and time stepping, respectively.

Consistent lattice Boltzmann modeling of low-speed isothermal flows at finite Knudsen numbers in slip-flow regime. II. Application to curved boundaries

Gaseous flows inside microfluidic devices often fall in the slip-flow regime. According to this theoretical description, the Navier-Stokes model remains applicable in bulk, while at solid walls a slip velocity boundary model shall be considered. Physically, it is well established that, to properly account for the wall curvature, the wall slip velocity must be determined by the shear stress, rather than the normal component of the velocity derivative alone, as commonly applied to planar surfaces. It follows that the numerical transcription of this type of boundary condition is generally a challenging task for standard computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques. This paper aims to show that the realization of the slip velocity condition on arbitrarily shaped boundaries can be accomplished in a natural way with the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). To substantiate this conclusion, this work undertakes the following three studies. First, we examine the conditions under which the generic reflection-type boundary rules used by LBM become consistent models for the slip velocity boundary condition. This effort makes use of the second-order Chapman-Enskog expansion method, where we address both planar and curved boundaries. The analysis also clarifies the capabilities and limitations behind the considered reflection-type slip schemes. Second, we revisit the family of parabolic accurate LBM slip boundary schemes, originally formulated in [Phys. Rev. E 96, 013311 (2017)2470-004510.1103/PhysRevE.96.013311] on the basis of the multireflection framework, and discuss their characteristics when operating on curved boundaries as well as the limitations of other less accurate LBM slip boundary formulations, such as the linearly accurate slip schemes and the widely popular "kinetic-based" boundary schemes. In addition, we also discuss the numerical stability of the parabolic slip schemes previously developed, providing an heuristic strategy to improve their stable range of operation. Third, we evaluate the performance of the several slip boundary schemes debated in this paper. The numerical tests correspond to two classical 2D benchmark flow problems of slip over non-planar solid surfaces, namely: (i) the velocity profile of the cylindrical Couette flow, and (ii) the permeability of a slow rarefied gas over a periodic array of circular cylindrical obstacles. The obtained numerical results confirm the competitiveness of the LBM when equipped with slip boundary schemes of parabolic accuracy as CFD tool to simulate slippage phenomena over arbitrarily non-planar surfaces. Indeed, although operating on a simple uniform mesh discretization, the LBM yields a similar, or even superior, level of accuracy compared to state-of-the-art FEM simulations conducted on hardworking body-fitted meshes. This conclusion establishes the LBM as a very appealing CFD technique for simulating microfluidic flows in the slip-flow regime, a result that deserves further exploration in future studies.

Comparative study of the discrete velocity and lattice Boltzmann methods for rarefied gas flows through irregular channels

Rooted from the gas kinetics, the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is a powerful tool in modeling hydrodynamics. In the past decade, it has been extended to simulate rarefied gas flows beyond the Navier-Stokes level, either by using the high-order Gauss-Hermite quadrature, or by introducing the relaxation time that is a function of the gas-wall distance. While the former method, with a limited number of discrete velocities (e.g., D2Q36), is accurate up to the early transition flow regime, the latter method (especially the multiple relaxation time (MRT) LBM), with the same discrete velocities as those used in simulating hydrodynamics (i.e., D2Q9), is accurate up to the free-molecular flow regime in the planar Poiseuille flow. This is quite astonishing in the sense that less discrete velocities are more accurate. In this paper, by solving the Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook kinetic equation accurately via the discrete velocity method, we find that the high-order Gauss-Hermite quadrature cannot describe the large variation in the velocity distribution function when the rarefaction effect is strong, but the MRT-LBM can capture the flow velocity well because it is equivalent to solving the Navier-Stokes equations with an effective shear viscosity. Since the MRT-LBM has only been validated in simple channel flows, and for complex geometries it is difficult to find the effective viscosity, it is necessary to assess its performance for the simulation of rarefied gas flows. Our numerical simulations based on the accurate discrete velocity method suggest that the accuracy of the MRT-LBM is reduced significantly in the simulation of rarefied gas flows through the rough surface and porous media. Our simulation results could serve as benchmarking cases for future development of the LBM for modeling and simulation of rarefied gas flows in complex geometries.

Crystallographic Lattice Boltzmann Method

Current approaches to Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) are computationally quite expensive for most realistic scientific and engineering applications of Fluid Dynamics such as automobiles or atmospheric flows. The Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM), with its simplified kinetic descriptions, has emerged as an important tool for simulating hydrodynamics. In a heterogeneous computing environment, it is often preferred due to its flexibility and better parallel scaling. However, direct simulation of realistic applications, without the use of turbulence models, remains a distant dream even with highly efficient methods such as LBM. In LBM, a fictitious lattice with suitable isotropy in the velocity space is considered to recover Navier-Stokes hydrodynamics in macroscopic limit. The same lattice is mapped onto a cartesian grid for spatial discretization of the kinetic equation. In this paper, we present an inverted argument of the LBM, by making spatial discretization as the central theme. We argue that the optimal spatial discretization for LBM is a Body Centered Cubic (BCC) arrangement of grid points. We illustrate an order-of-magnitude gain in efficiency for LBM and thus a significant progress towards feasibility of DNS for realistic flows.