Multicomponent fluid flow analysis using a new set of conservation equations

In this work hydrodynamics of multicomponent ideal gas mixtures have been studied. Starting from the kinetic equations, the Eulerian approach is used to derive a new set of conservation equations for the multicomponent system where each component may have different velocity and kinetic temperature. The equations are based on the Grad's method of moment derived from the kinetic model in a relaxation time approximation (RTA). Based on this model which contains separate equation sets for each component of the system, a computer code has been developed for numerical computation of compressible flows of binary gas mixture in generalized curvilinear boundary conforming coordinates. Since these equations are similar to the Navier–Stokes equations for the single fluid systems, the same numerical methods are applied to these new equations. The Roe's numerical scheme is used to discretize the convective terms of governing fluid flow equations. The prepared algorithm and the computer code are capable of computing and presenting flow fields of each component of the system separately as well as the average flow field of the multicomponent gas system as a whole. Comparison of the present code results with those of a more common algorithm based on the mixture theory in a supersonic converging–diverging nozzle provides the validation of the present formulation. Afterwards, a more involved nozzle cooling problem with a binary ideal gas (helium–xenon) is chosen to compare the present results with those of the ordinary mixture theory. The present model provides the details of the flow fields of each component separately which is not available otherwise. It is also shown that the separate fluids treatment, such as the present study, is crucial when considering time scales on the order of (or shorter than) the intercollisions relaxation times.