Error estimation and adaptive moment hierarchies for goal-oriented approximations of the Boltzmann equation

This paper presents an a-posteriori goal-oriented error analysis for a numerical approximation of the steady Boltzmann equation based on a moment-system approximation in velocity dependence and a discontinuous Galerkin finite-element (DGFE) approximation in position dependence. We derive computable error estimates and bounds for general target functionals of solutions of the steady Boltzmann equation based on the DGFE moment approximation. The a-posteriori error estimates and bounds are used to guide a model adaptive algorithm for optimal approximations of the goal functional in question. We present results for one-dimensional heat transfer and shock structure problems where the moment model order is refined locally in space for optimal approximation of the heat flux.