Kinetic Theory Models

Abstract

Discrete techniques (MD or BD), despite their conceptual simplicity, are very often too expensive from the computational point of view. Kinetic theory approaches seem, in many cases, a suitable compromise between the accuracy of finer descriptions and the computational efficiency of macroscopic descriptions. In this chapter, we revisit some kinetic theory models. Even if there is a common rationale for deriving the different models, in order to emphasize their physical contents, we will follow a diversity of alternative routes to derive them.