A consistent BGK model with velocity-dependent collision frequency for gas mixtures (Q820895)

The Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook (BGK) model is considered for the two-species gas mixture, with appropriate boundary and initial conditions. The affinity of the BGK model with the multi-species Boltzmann colision theory (pertaining to the relaxation operator in the BGK model equations) [\textit{P. L. Bhatnagar} et al., Phys. Rev., II. Ser. 94, 511--525 (1954; Zbl 0055.23609)] is explored in the multi-species case. The model is formally derived based on an entropy minimization principle, which implies that the target functions take the form of Maxwellians. However, contrary to classical BGK models with velocity-independent frequencies, the relationship between the Maxwellian parameters and the moments of the distribution function is not analytic. The model is derived by minimizing a weighted entropy under the constraint that the number of particles of each species, total momentum, and total energy are conserved. It is found that this minimization problem admits a unique solution for very general collision frequencies. The existence of parameters, which satisfy first-order optimality conditions has been rigorously established. The derived model provides a demonstration that the validity of the Boltzmann H-Theorem can be extended to the case of arbitrarily many species undergoing binary collisions. Prospects for the future work refer to developing numerical tools for discretizing the pertinent model, and seeking the numerical solution of the defining optimization problem.