Hybrid atomistic-continuum methods for multiscale hydrodynamics

Abstract

We discuss hybrid atomistic-continuum methods for multiscale hydrodynamic applications. Both dense fluid and dilute gas formulations are considered. The choice of coupling method and its relation to the fluid physics is discussed. The differences in hybrid methods resulting from underlying compressible and incompressible continuum formulations as well as the importance of timescale decoupling are highlighted. We also discuss recently developed compressible and incompressible hybrid methods for dilute gases. The incompressible framework is based on the Schwarz alternating method whereas the compressible method is a multi-species, fully adaptive mesh and algorithm refinement approach which introduces the direct simulation Monte Carlo at the finest level of mesh refinement.