Direct numerical solution of the Boltzmann equation for a relaxation problem of a binary mixture of hard sphere gases

The aim of the paper is the presentation of results obtained by the direct numerical solution of the Boltzmann equation in the case of a binary mixture of hard sphere gases. The system of two coupled Boltzmann equations is solved by a techique combining finite differences with the Monte Carlo evaluation of the Boltzmann collision integrals. It is shown how the technique proposed by Aristov and Tcheremissine for a single gas can be extended to a mixture. The resulting algorithm can be very well vectorized and the results of a few test calculations on the vector computer CRAY-XMP 48 are presented. © 1989 Pitagora Editrice Bologna.