Computational Modelling Group

Seminar  15th August 2014 10:30 a.m.  175/1007

Lattice Boltzmann method and discrete-velocity kinetic theory

Prof. Dr. Xiaowen Shan
Beijing Aeronautical Science & Technology Research Institute of COMAC (BASTRI)

Categories
CFD, NGCM
Submitter
Luke Goater

In the past three decades, we have witnessed a phenomenal growth of the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) applications in many areas of computer simulation of fluids. Some distinctive features of this innovative method include its simple and intuitive meso-scopic fluid model, and the efficient, highly parallelizable algorithm. Despite the rather simplistic origin of this method, it turns out that the LBM is rigorously connected with the classic kinetic theory which fundamentally ensures its successfulness in a vastly diversified array of application domains. In this talk, I shall give a brief introduction to its history and the basics, followed by a discussion of its kinetic theory derivation. Some interesting and promising applications will also be reviewed and future development directions explored.

Biography

Xiaowen Shan is currently the director of aerodynamics research at Beijing Aeronautical Science and Technology Research Institute of the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, Ltd. (COMAC). He received his BS and MS degrees from Beijing University, China, both in Mechanics, and his Ph. D. in physics from Dartmouth College, USA. From 1991 to 1998, he worked as visiting scholar, postdoctoral research fellow, and staff member at Los Alamos National Laboratory where his research focus was on computational studies of complex fluids and turbulence. His work on a multiphase lattice Boltzmann model, which is now known as the Shan-Chen model, and on the statistical physical theory of the lattice Boltzmann method has since received a great amount of attention all over the world. While at Los Alamos, he also consulted with Exxon Engineering in New Jersey and worked as a visiting fellow at the US Air Force Research Laboratory in Hanscom AFB, Massachusetts. In 1998, he took a detour from his scientific career to join Microsoft as a software developer and worked on performance analysis and optimization of a number of Microsoft products including Exchange Server, Multimedia products, and Windows OS kernel. In 2005, he moved to Exa Corp., USA as the Director of Advanced Physics Algorithm to lead the research and development of high-Mach number flow and complex fluid flow capabilities in Exa’s lattice Boltzmann based CFD software. In 2012, he joined COMAC to lead the advanced aerodynamics research and conceptual design of future aircraft. Xiaowen Shan was elected a Fellow of American Physical Society in 2009 for his seminal contributions in the formulation and applications of lattice Boltzmann models for multiphase and complex fluids; and for pioneering Lattice-Boltzmann-method based fluid dynamics algorithms for real-world engineering applications. Xiaowen Shan is an Adjunct Research Professor at Boston University, a Visiting Research Professor at the University of Strathclyde, and an Adjunct Professor at China University of Petroleum.

Research Interests

At COMAC’s Beijing research center, we are charged with the mission of developing fundamental, forward-looking technologies for large civilian aircraft and preliminary design of COMAC’s future aircrafts. Our current research activities include conceptual studies of novel aircraft configuration, aero noise prediction, measurements, and reduction techniques, development of in-house Computational Fluid Dynamics software, aero-elasticity, and many others. We also remain interested in the studies of fundamental fluid physics, complex fluid dynamics.

Representative Publications

  1. Xiaowen Shan and Hudong Chen, "A Lattice Boltzmann model for simulating flows with multiple phases and components,"Phys. Rev. E 47, 1815, (1993)

  2. Xiaowen Shan and Hudong Chen, "Simulation of non-ideal gases and liquid-gas phase transitions by lattice Boltzmann equation," Phys. Rev. E 49 2941, (1994)

  3. Xiaowen Shan and Xiaoyi He "Discretization of the velocity space in solution of the Boltzmann equation," Phys. Rev. Lett., 80, 65, (1998)

  4. Shan, X., Yuan, X.-F., & Chen, H. “Kinetic theory representation of hydrodynamics: A way beyond the Navier-Stokes equation,” J. Fluid Mech. 550, 413, (2006)

  5. Xiaowen Shan and Gary Doolen, "Multi-component lattice Boltzmann model with interparticle interaction," J. Stat. Phys., 81, 379, (1995).

  6. Xiaowen Shan and David Montgomery, "Magnetohydrodynamic stabilization through rotation," Phys. Rev. Lett. 73, 1624 (1994).

  7. Xiaowen Shan and David Montgomery, "Rotating magnetohydrodynamics," J. Plasma Phys. 52, 113, (1994).

  8. Shiyi Chen and Xiaowen Shan, "High Resolution Turbulent Simulations Using the Connection Machine-2," Computers in Physics 6, 643, (1992)

  9. Xungang Shi and Xiaowen Shan, "Relation between the quasi-cylindrical approximation and the critical classification for swirling flow," Acta Mechanica Sinica, 3, 304, (1987)