Lorenzani 2011
Lorenzani 2011
Lorenzani 2011
In the present paper, we provide an analytical expression for the first- and second-
order velocity slip coefficients by means of a variational technique that applies to the
integrodifferential form of the Boltzmann equation based on the true linearized collision
operator and the Cercignani–Lampis scattering kernel of the gas–surface interaction. The
polynomial form of the Knudsen number obtained for the Poiseuille mass flow rate and the
values of the velocity slip coefficients are analysed in the frame of potential applications
of the lattice Boltzmann methods in simulations of microscale flows.
Keywords: variational method; microscale flows; slip coefficients
1. Introduction
The use of the Lattice Boltzmann (LB) method to describe flows in nano-
and microfluidic devices has been an area of intense research in recent years.
Since, historically, the LB method was derived as a Navier–Stokes solver,
criticism has been raised about the validity of applying the LB method to finite-
Knudsen-number flows. However, it is now generally accepted that the classical
hydrodynamical equations can supply realistic results well beyond the slip region,
provided that higher order boundary conditions are employed. Therefore, one
of the critical issues with the LB method is to specify suitable slip boundary
conditions to ensure microscale simulation accuracy. Very recently, Sbragaglia &
Succi [1] demonstrated how, in the presence of a non-zero slip coefficient, the LB
develops a physical slip flow component at the wall that can be matched exactly
to experimental data up to second order in the Knudsen number, provided the free
parameters appearing in the LB model are tuned in a correct way. Since the LB
equation has its roots in kinetic theory, in the current investigation, a variational
technique has been used to obtain asymptotic near-continuum solutions of the
linearized Boltzmann equation for hard-sphere molecules and general models
of boundary conditions, in order to provide analytical expressions for the first-
and second-order velocity slip coefficients that enable the mesoscopic approach
presented in Sbragaglia & Succi [1] to become predictive.
2. Mathematical formulation
Let us consider two plates separated by a distance d and a gas flowing parallel to
them, in the z-direction, owing to a pressure gradient. Both boundaries, fixed at
x = ±d/2, are held at a constant temperature T0 . For small values of the pressure
gradient, it can be assumed that the velocity distribution of the flow is nearly
the same as that occurring in an equilibrium state. Under these conditions, the
Boltzmann equation can be linearized [2],
vh
kcz + cx = Lh, (2.1)
vx
where h(x, c) is the small perturbation on the basic equilibrium state, c is the
molecular velocity expressed in units of (2RT )1/2 (with R being the gas constant
and T being the temperature), k = (1/p)(vp/vz) = (1/r)(vr/vz) (with p and r
being the gas pressure and density, respectively) and Lh is the linearized collision
operator. In the current investigation, we analyse the Poiseuille problem on
the basis of the linearized collision operator for hard-sphere molecules in order
to obtain a better approximation of real-gas behaviour for isothermal flows.
Appropriate boundary conditions on the two plates must be supplied for the
Boltzmann equation (2.1) to be solved. Once the deviation h from the equilibrium
distribution is known, the bulk velocity of the gas can be written as
+∞ +∞ +∞
q(x) = p− 2
3
e−c cz h(x, c) dc,
2
(2.2)
−∞ −∞ −∞
and the flow rate F (per unit time through unit thickness) as
d/2
F =r q(x) dx. (2.3)
−d/2
2230 S. Lorenzani
where
2cx [ct − (1 − at )c t ]2
RCL (c → c) = exp −
pat an (2 − at ) at (2 − at )
√
[cx 2 + (1 − an )c x 2 ] 2 1 − an
× exp − Io cx c x , (2.6)
an an
where P is the parity operator in velocity space and ((, )), (, )B denote two scalar
products defined in Cercignani & Lorenzani [2]. The functional J (h̃) attains its
minimum value when h̃ = h(x, c) solves equation (2.4) with appropriate boundary
conditions. If we let h̃ = h, equation (2.7) gives: J (h) = −((PS , h)). Looking at the
definitions (2.2) and (2.3), it can be easily shown that the stationary value of J
is related to a quantity of physical interest, the flow rate of the gas, through
the relation: F = −r/kJ (h). Since the purpose of the present investigation is
to provide an analytical expression for the first- and second-order velocity slip
coefficients, it is sufficient to consider asymptotic results (near-continuum) for
mass flow rates. Therefore, the following simplified test function, rescaled by the
relative pressure gradient k and the length parameter q, has been used to evaluate
equation (2.7):
1
h̃(x, c) = 2cz A(x − 2xcx + 2cx ) + 2cz
2 2
B− , (2.8)
2
which is the same trial function that, for the Bhatnagar–Gross–Krook (BGK)
kinetic model, has been proved to produce very accurate results in the near-
continuum flow limit [2]. In equation (2.8), A and B are adjustable constants
to be varied in order to obtain the best value of J (h̃). Substituting h̃, given by
equation (2.8), into equation (2.7), we obtain the following polynomial of the
second order with respect to the constants A and B, which are to be determined:
√ −1 c11 2 c22 2 1 c22
J (h̃) = ( p) A + B + c12 AB − c1 A − c2 B + c2 − , (2.9)
2 2 2 4
where the same symbol J (h̃) has been used to denote the dimensionless quantity
J (h̃)/(kq)2 . The coefficients in non-dimensional form are given by
4 √ 3 8 d3 ˆ 32 d4 √
c11 = − pd − J 1 + 4d2 − dJˆ 2 − at + pd3 at − 4d2 at
3 3p p 4
√ √ √
+ 12 pdat − 32at + 4 pdan − 16an − 4 pdat an + 16at an
+∞ +∞ +∞
dc e−c f(c)Lj,
2
[f, j] = (2.13)
−∞ −∞ −∞
2p p +∞
1
dc1 e−c1 V (j1 + j − j1 − j),
2
Lj = √ de sin Q dQ · (2.14)
4 2p5/2 l 0 0 −∞
2232 S. Lorenzani
optimal values of these constants. The resulting expression for the minimum
of J (h̃) is
√ −1 2 −1
min J (h̃) = (8 p) · [c11 c22 − c12 ] · [8c12 c1 c2 − 4c12 c22
+ c12
2
· (c22 − 4c2 ) − c11 (c22 − 2c2 )2 ]. (2.15)
d s2
Q= + s1 + + ··· (3.2)
s0 d
where
√ −1 96 √ √ 16
s0 = (4 p) · Jˆ 1 + 48 p , s1 = [4 pat A] · D − pat C ,
−1
(3.3)
p 9
√ 16 16
s2 = [4 pat A]−1 · E + pat C 2 − pat B − CD , (3.4)
9 9
32 ˆ 16 √ 128 ˆ 32 64
A= J1 + p, D = J 1 − p3/2 at + p3/2 , (3.5)
3p 3 3 3 3
128 ˆ √ √ √
B = A−1 · J 2 − 16 pat − 16 pan + 16 pat an , (3.6)
p
C = A−1 · [−16 − 4pat − 64F0 an (1 − at ) − 64F1 (1 − at )(1 − an )] (3.7)
64
and E = −64p + pat − 256pF0 an (1 − at ) − 256pF1 (1 − at )(1 − an ), (3.8)
3
with Jˆ 1 = −1.4180 and Jˆ 2 = 1.8909. Rewriting equation (3.2) in terms of
deviations from the continuum solution, one obtains
Q 2 4
S BLE
= = 1 + √ (s0 s1 ) Kn + (s0 s2 ) Kn 2 , (3.9)
(d/s0 ) p p
√
where the Knudsen number (Kn) is given by Kn = p/(2d). A comparison with
the solution of the Navier–Stokes equations obtained by using the boundary
condition (3.1),
S NS = 1 + 6A1 Kn + 12Ã2 Kn 2 , (3.10)
gives
s0 s1 s 0 s2
A1 = √ and A2 = Ã2 + O(1) = , (3.11)
3 p 3p
where the term O(1) indicates that a kinetic boundary layer, of the order
of Kn 2 , needs to be superposed to the Navier–Stokes component of the flow
field in order to capture the true solution of the Boltzmann equation [2].
A2 , evaluated starting from mass flow rate computations, can be considered a
sort of ‘effective’ second-order slip coefficient since it includes the contribution of
the Knudsen layer. Once the effective second-order slip coefficients are evaluated
by means of our variational computation of the Poiseuille flow rate, one can
filter out the Knudsen layer effects, following the theoretical considerations
presented below. In the BGK approximation, the Poiseuille flow rate can be split
as follows: d/2
d/2 2
F 2 v q̂
= q(x) dx = q̂(x) + xl dx, (3.12)
r −d/2 −d/2 vx 2
where q̂(x) represents the Navier–Stokes component of the true flow field, while
the second term in the integral (3.12) accounts for the contribution of the Knudsen
layer. According to Cercignani & Lorenzani [2], the Knudsen layer contribution
to the flow rate is largely independent of the molecular model considered and,
therefore, also for a hard-sphere gas, x retains approximately the same value
it keeps for the BGK model equation, x 0.296. Thus, the second-order slip
2234 S. Lorenzani
The first-order (A1 ) and second-order (A2 ) slip coefficients, obtained on the basis
of our variational solution of the linearized Boltzmann equation for hard-sphere
molecules, are given in tables 1 and 2, for several values of the accommodation
coefficients at and an . To test the reliability of our variational approach, we list
in table 1, the values of the first-order slip coefficient A1 computed by using
equation (3.11), along with the highly accurate numerical results reported by
Siewert [4]. We have rescaled the values of the viscous slip coefficient given by
Siewert [4] in order to use the same definitions of mean free path and units as
in the present investigation. As shown in the table, the agreement is fairly good
with the relative error lying within 1.2 per cent. This comparison reveals that
our variational datas are more accurate than those reported in McCormick [5],
where analytical equations for the first-order viscous slip have been obtained
by means of a variational principle applied to the linear Boltzmann equation
for a rigid-sphere gas and the CL scattering kernel. We have also included in
tables 1 and 2 results based on a variational solution of the linearized BGK model
equation in order to provide evidence that the BGK first-order slip coefficients
are similar to those determined by the solution of the Boltzmann equation for
hard-sphere molecules, while the second-order slip coefficients are found to be
significantly dependent on the interaction model. As stated in §2, the Maxwell
gas–surface interaction law is characterized by a single accommodation coefficient
a for every molecular property. Thus, one may expect that assuming the same
accommodation coefficients, the Maxwell kernel and the CL model will provide
results close to each other.
In table 3, a comparison of the slip coefficients, obtained for both kernels under
the condition a = at = an , is performed. One can see that the dependence of the
first-order slip coefficient on the scattering kernel used is weak, while the second-
order slip coefficient depends significantly on the gas–surface interaction model.
In spite of that, whatever model of boundary conditions is chosen, the estimates
we obtain for A2 , in the case of hard-sphere molecules, seem inconsistent with
most of the available theoretical models derived on heuristic or empirical grounds,
while they are very close to the values obtained in recent experiments (see [2] for a
detailed discussion). This means that our analytical expressions for the first- and
second-order velocity slip coefficients can be used to adjust the free parameters
appearing in the mesoscopic approach of the LB boundary conditions proposed
in Sbragaglia & Succi [1], in order to predict experimental data. In recent years,
the LB method has been recognized as one of the most promising approaches
for the simulation of microscale gas flows provided that boundary conditions
derived from continuous kinetic theory are employed. Two basis types of kinetic
boundary condition have been proposed: one is the discrete Maxwellian boundary
Table 1. The first-order slip coefficient A1 for the CL boundary conditions. Comparison between our
results (variational method applied to the Boltzmann equation for a hard-sphere gas (var.(HS)))
and Siewert’s results [4] for a rigid-sphere gas. The outputs based on a variational solution of the
BGK model equation are also included (variational method applied to the BGK kinetic model of
the Boltzmann equation (var.(BGK))).
Table 2. The second-order slip coefficient A2 for the CL boundary conditions as given by our
variational results for a rigid-sphere gas (var.(HS)). The outputs based on a variational solution of
the BGK model equation are also included (var.(BGK)).
0.25 var.(HS) −1.2707 × 10−1 −4.2429 × 10−2 4.5998 × 10−2 1.3821 × 10−1 2.3420 × 10−1
var.(BGK) 3.2434 × 10−1 4.1084 × 10−1 5.0098 × 10−1 5.9477 × 10−1 6.9219 × 10−1
0.50 var.(HS) −1.3137 × 10−2 4.6217 × 10−2 1.0725 × 10−1 1.6997 × 10−1 2.3436 × 10−1
var.(BGK) 4.4069 × 10−1 5.0117 × 10−1 5.6327 × 10−1 6.2699 × 10−1 6.9233 × 10−1
0.75 var.(HS) 1.0745 × 10−1 1.3859 × 10−1 1.7015 × 10−1 2.0213 × 10−1 2.3453 × 10−1
var.(BGK) 5.6345 × 10−1 5.9510 × 10−1 6.2715 × 10−1 6.5961 × 10−1 6.9247 × 10−1
1.00 var.(HS) 2.3470 × 10−1 2.3470 × 10−1 2.3470 × 10−1 2.3470 × 10−1 2.3470 × 10−1
var.(BGK) 6.9261 × 10−1 6.9261 × 10−1 6.9261 × 10−1 6.9261 × 10−1 6.9261 × 10−1
2236 S. Lorenzani
Table 3. Comparison of variational results based on the Maxwell (M) and Cercignani–Lampis (CL)
kernels at a = at = an , for a rigid-sphere gas.
A1 A2
a M CL M CL
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