Simulations of Dynamical Gas-Dust Circumstellar Disks: Going Beyond the Epstein Regime

TL;DR

This paper develops a semi-implicit numerical scheme for simulating gas-dust interactions in circumstellar disks, extending beyond the Epstein regime by incorporating a continuous drag coefficient suitable for various flow regimes.

Contribution

It introduces a new semi-implicit first-order scheme for gas-dust systems that handles stiff interactions and non-linear drag regimes with a continuous drag coefficient.

Findings

The scheme effectively models stiff gas-dust interactions.

A continuous drag coefficient improves simulation accuracy across regimes.

The method is suitable for complex, realistic circumstellar disk conditions.

Abstract

In circumstellar disks, the size of dust particles varies from submicron to several centimeters, while planetesimals have sizes of hundreds of kilometers. Therefore, various regimes for the aerodynamic drag between solid bodies and gas can be realized in these disks, depending on the grain sizes and velocities: Epstein, Stokes, and Newton, as well as transitional regimes between them. For small bodies moving in the Epstein regime, the time required to establish the constant relative velocity between the gas and bodies can be much less than the dynamical time scale for the problem - the time for the rotation of the disk about the central body. In addition, the dust may be concentrated in individual regions of the disk, making it necessary to take into account the transfer of momentum between the dust and gas. It is shown that, for a system of equations for gas and monodisperse dust, a semi-implicit first-order approximation scheme in time in which the interphase interaction is calculated implicitly, while other forces, such as the pressure gradient and gravity are calculated explicitly, is suitable for stiff problems with intense interphase interactions and for computations of the drag in non-linear regimes. The piece-wise drag coefficient widely used in astrophysical simulations has a discontinuity at some values of the Mach and Knudsen numbers that are realized in a circumstellar disk. A continuous drag coefficient is presented, which corresponds to experimental dependences obtained for various drag regimes.