Theoretical Development of the Information Preservation Method for Strongly Nonequilibrium Gas Flows

The information preservation method is a particle technique for nonequilibrium gas flows with low statistical fluctuations. The foundation of the information preservation method is derived theoretically in this study. First, the evolution of the average information is obtained using Maxwell’s equation of change. Then, the update of individual particle information is assumed to follow the governing equation of the average information. Two approaches are proposed to evaluate the statistical terms appeared in the governing equations. Namely, the local thermodynamic equilibrium approach and the flux splitting approach. It is found that the flux splitting approach is better, and can predict the shock structure of normal shock waves and the temperature distribution of thermal Couette flows for all Knudsen numbers.