Molecular Extended Thermodynamics of Rarefied Polyatomic Gases with a new Hierarchy of Moments

Abstract

Recently, Pennisi and Ruggeri [J Stat Phys 179, 231-246 (2020)] consider the classical limit of the relativistic theory of moments associated with the Boltzmann-Chernikov equation truncated at a tensorial index $N+1$ and they proved that there exists a unique possible choice of the moments in the classical case for a given $N$ both for monatomic and polyatomic gases. In particular, in polyatomic gases, there exists a new hierarchy of moments that is more general than the one considered in the recent literature. As consequence, when $N=2$, in the classical limit, there is a theory with $15$ fields. In this paper, we consider this system of moments, and we close the system using the maximum entropy principle. It is shown that the theory contains as a principal subsystem the previously polyatomic $14$ fields theory, and in the monatomic limit, in which the dynamical pressure vanishes, the differential system converges instead to Grad 13-moments system to the 14 moments theory proposed by Kremer [Annales de l'I.H.P. Physique th\'eorique, 45, 419-440 (1986)].