A method for computing axially symmetric rotating flows of a rarefied gas at small Knudsen numbers (Q1571307)

A numerical method for solving the Boltzmann equation is proposed to compute axially symmetric rotating flows of a rarefied gas. The method is conservative, second-order accurate, and efficient at small Knudsen numbers. The Taylor instability of gas flow between two rotating cylinders is analyzed. It's shown that the combined effect of nonlinearity and viscosity results in an unstable one-dimensional shear flow and in the formation of toroidal Taylor vortices.