An ES-BGK model for vibrational polyatomic gases

Abstract: We propose an extension of the Ellipsoidal-Statistical BGK model to account for discrete levels of vibrational energy in a rarefied polyatomic gas. This model satisfies an H-theorem and contains parameters that allow to fit almost arbitrary values for the Prandtl number and the relaxation times of rotational and vibrational energies. With the reduced distribution technique , this model can be reduced to a three distribution system that could be used to simulate polyatomic gases with rotational and vibrational energy for a computational cost close to that of a simple monoatomic gas.