This book provides a systematic overview and classification on modeling and simulation of rarefied gas flows and develops novel algorithms to tackle some of these unsolved problems, facilitating a better understanding of multi-scale simulation and providing references for practical problem-solving in the relevant fields. All these methods presented in this book are verified by specific scenarios. It is worth mentioning that in the context of disciplinary integration and artificial intelligence, the research ideas, methods, and models in this book can be further integrated and developed. From application perspectives, they can also extend from traditional computational fluid dynamics, heat and mass transfer to emerging fields of shale gas extraction, micro-electro-mechanical systems development and re-entry spacecraft numerical simulation. The proposed hybrid algorithm in this book is of practical significance and paves the way for simulating multi-scale gas flows in real engineering applications, which will be beneficial to undergraduate and postgraduate students in interdisciplinary disciplines including aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, microfluidics and nanofluidics, etc. It is also intended for researchers and practical users in the fields of active flow control, non-equilibrium gas dynamics and multi-scale modeling.
Dr. Weiqi Yang received the B.E., M.E., and the Ph.D. degrees in aerospace science and technology/flight vehicle design from the School of Astronautics, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China, in 2012, 2015, and 2020, respectively. He was a visiting researcher at the University of Strathclyde in 2017–2018, Glasgow, G1 1XJ, UK, and at the Scientific Computing Department, STFC Daresbury Laboratory in 2018–2019, Warrington, WA4 4AD, UK. He is currently an associate professor at the National University of Defense Technology, and his research interests include non-equilibrium flow mechanism, rarefied gas dynamics, gas kinetic theory, macro/mesoscopic schemes and numerical solvers of the Boltzmann equation. He was the principal investigator (PI) for 4 research projects, including grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and the Hunan Provincial Natural Science Foundation.
Dr. Jing Men received her Bachelor of Engineering from the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Henan University of Science and Technology, Henan, China, in 2012, and her Master of Engineering from the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China, in 2015. She obtained the doctoral degree from the College of Aerospace Science and Engineering, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha, China, in 2024. She is currently an associate professor at Hunan University of Technology and Business, with research interests including nano-porous aerogels, ultra-high-temperature ceramics, and machine learning.
Prof. Jie Li received her B.E. and Ph.D. degrees in Fluid Mechanics from the College of Aerospace Science and Engineering, National University of Defense Technology (NUDT), Changsha, China, in 1996 and 2004, respectively. She currently serves as a professor at the same college. Her research interests encompass Rarefied Gas Effects, Plasma Plumes, the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method, the Particle-in-Cell (PIC) method, Gas Kinetic Theory, Rarefied Two-Phase Flow, and Vacuum Arc Thrusters. She has acted as the principal investigator (PI) for over 10 research projects, including those funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and the Aerospace Industry Sector.
