Adaptive particle-cell algorithm for Fokker-Planck based rarefied gas flow simulations

Recently, the Fokker-Planck (FP) kinetic model has been devised on the basis of the Boltzmann equation (Jenny et al., 2010; Gorji et al., 2011). Particle Monte-Carlo schemes are then introduced for simulations of rarefied gas flows based on the FP kinetics. Here the particles follow independent stochastic paths and thus a spatio-temporal resolution coarser than the collisional scales becomes possible. In contrast to the direct simulation Monte-Carlo (DSMC), the computational cost is independent of the Knudsen number resulting in efficient simulations at moderate/low Knudsen flows. In order to further exploit the efficiency of the FP method, the required particle-cell resolutions should be found, and a cell refinement strategy has to be developed accordingly. In this study, an adaptive particle-cell scheme applicable to a general unstructured mesh is derived for the FP model. Virtual sub cells are introduced for the adaptive mesh refinement. Moreover a sub cell-merging algorithm is provided to honor the minimum required number of particles per cell. For assessments, the 70 degree blunted cone reentry flow (Allgre et al., 1997) is studied. Excellent agreement between the introduced adaptive FP method and DSMC is achieved.