A triangular discontinuous Galerkin method for non-Newtonian implicit constitutive models of rarefied and microscale gases

• A new triangular DG method for non-Newtonian rarefied and microscale gases is presented.
• A mixed DG scheme based on adding auxiliary unknowns is applied to the non-Newtonian implicit constitutive models.
• The new scheme can handle the low Mach and high Knudsen number flows with a single framework.
• The verification and validation of the new scheme is presented.

The discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method has been popular as a numerical technique for solving the conservation laws of gas dynamics. In the present study, we develop an explicit modal DG scheme for multi-dimensional conservation laws on unstructured triangular meshes in conjunction with non-Newtonian implicit nonlinear coupled constitutive relations (NCCR). Special attention is given to how to treat the complex non-Newtonian type constitutive relations arising from the high degree of thermal nonequilibrium in multi-dimensional gas flows within the Galerkin framework. The Langmuir velocity slip and temperature jump conditions are also implemented into the two-dimensional DG scheme for high Knudsen number flows. As a canonical scalar case, Newtonian and non-Newtonian convection–diffusion Burgers equations are studied to develop the basic building blocks for the scheme. In order to verify and validate the scheme, we applied the scheme to a stiff problem of the shock wave structure for all Mach numbers and to the two-dimensional hypersonic rarefied and low-speed microscale gas flows past a circular cylinder. The computational results show that the NCCR model yields the solutions in better agreement with the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) data than the Newtonian linear Navier–Stokes–Fourier (NSF) results in all cases of the problem studied.