A unified implicit scheme for kinetic model equations. Part I. Memory reduction technique

A memory reduction technique is proposed for solving stationary kinetic model equations. As implied by an integral solution of the stationary kinetic equation, a velocity distribution function can be reconstructed from given macroscopic variables. Based on this fact, we propose a technique to reconstruct distribution function at discrete level, and employ it to develop an implicit numerical method for kinetic equations. The new implicit method only stores the macroscopic quantities which appear in the collision term, and does not store the distribution functions. As a result, enormous memory requirement for solving kinetic equations is totally relieved. Several boundary conditions, such as, inlet, outlet and isothermal boundaries, are discussed. Some numerical tests demonstrate the validity and efficiency of the technique. The new implicit solver provides nearly identical solution as the explicit kinetic solver, while the memory requirement is on the same order as the Navier-Stokes solver.