Solution of a kinetic equation for diatomic gas with the use of differential scattering cross sections computed by the method of classical trajectories

A collision integral is constructed taking into account the rotational degrees of freedom of the gas molecules. Its truncation error is shown to be second order in the rotational velocity mesh size. In the solution of the kinetic equation, the resulting collision integral is directly computed using a projection method. Preliminarily, the differential scattering cross sections of nitrogen molecules are computed by applying the method of classical trajectories. The resulting cross section values are tabulated in multimillion data arrays. The one-dimensional problems of shock wave structure and heat transfer between two plates are computed as tests, and the results are compared with experimental data. The convergence of the results with decreasing rotational velocity mesh size is analyzed.