Kinetic Theory of Gases

The present text is based on a set of lectures given as part of a post graduate course in fluid mechanics at the Department of Mechanics, KTH School of Engineering Sciences. The topic of kinetic gas theory was chosen as to broaden the students knowledge in the field of fluid mechanics in general. In particular the students should get a new perspective on the contiuum theory approach applied in their every day research task. Also, the topic has bearing on the theory of two phase flow for dispersed systems, where the molecules of kinetic gas theory are replaced with macroscopic, discrete particles supended in a continous fluid. The formalism for expressing averaged kinetic transport of gas properties is also in very close analogy to the averaging of contiuum properties in a turbulent flow field, a subject the students usually are more familiar with. In all, the subject is a quite central part of the field of mechanics, and provides a link between under graduate courses in mechanics of particle systems, classical equilibrium thermodynamics and courses in continuum fluid mechanics. The present lectures notes are complemented by each class with a set of project reports. Each group of two(or three) students performs a DSMC(Direct Simulation Monte-Carlo) simulation on a specific problem using an available designated code provided with the text book by Bird [1]. The results of these simulations are summarized by each group in a project report that is distributed to all participants as part of the course literature.