A BGK model for gas mixtures of polyatomic molecules allowing for slow and fast relaxation of the temperatures

Abstract

Kinetic models for polyatomic gases have two temperatures for the two different types of degrees of freedom, the translational and the internal energy degrees of freedom. Therefore, in the case of BGK models one expects two types of relaxations, a relaxation of the distribution function to a Maxwell distribution and a relaxation of the two temperatures to an equal value. The speed for the first type of relaxation may be faster or slower than the second type of relaxation. Models found in the literature often allow only for one of these two cases. We believe that a model should allow for both cases. That is why we derive a new multi-species polyatomic BGK model which allows for both regimes. For this new model we prove conservation properties, positivity of the temperatures, the H-theorem and characterize the equilibrium as a Maxwell distribution with equal temperatures. Moreover, we prove the convergence rate to equilibrium and that we can actually capture both regimes of the relaxation processes.