Particles on Demand for flows with strong discontinuities

Abstract

Particles on Demand formulation of kinetic theory [B. Dorschner, F. B\"{o}sch and I. V. Karlin, {\it Phys. Rev. Lett.} {\bf 121}, 130602 (2018)] is used to simulate a variety of compressible flows with strong discontinuities in density, pressure and velocity. Two modifications are applied to the original formulation of the Particles on Demand method. First, a regularization by Grad's projection of particles populations is combined with the reference frame transformations in order to enhance stability and accuracy. Second, a finite-volume scheme is implemented which allows tight control of mass, momentum and energy conservation. The proposed model is validated with an array of challenging one- and two-dimensional benchmarks of compressible flows, including hypersonic and near-vacuum situations, Richtmyer-Meshkov instability, double Mach reflection and astrophysical jet. Excellent performance of the modified Particles on Demand method is demonstrated beyond the limitations of other lattice Boltzmann-like approaches to compressible flows.