Modeling and Simulation III

Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) [1] and Particle-in-Cell (PIC) [2] with Monte-Carlo collisions (MCC) methods have been developed for solving Boltzmann kinetic equation for neutral and charged species respectively. Despite similarities, for the most part, they were developed independently and targeted different users. Nowadays more and more PIC-MCC users start exploring the DSMC method for implementing particle-particle collisions and for tracking the transport of neutral species that is quite important for accurate simulations of low temperature plasmas found, for example, in semiconductor manufacturing. However, the DSMC method has been extended beyond its original target areas. In this presentation, some lessons from the DSMC method that could be useful to the PIC-MCC users will be presented. It includes the relationship between fluctuating hydrodynamics and the DSMC method that allows to quantify the numerical noise in the particle-based simulations, flow boundary conditions treatment, different models for the collision operator including various collision schemes.

 

[1] Bird, Graeme Austin. "Molecular gas dynamics." NASA STI/Recon Technical Report A 76 (1976): 40225.

[2] Birdsall, Charles K., and A. Bruce Langdon. "Plasma physics via computer simulation". CRC press, (2018).