Preface
The 23rd International Symposium on Rarefied Gas Dynamics (RGD23) was held at the Whistler
Conference Center in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada from 21-25 July 2002. Over 150 delegates from
21 countries attended the Symposium in Whistler, marking the third time that the Rarefied Gas Dynamics
Symposium has been held in Canada. The Symposium was opened by Mr. Ted Milner, a member of the
Whistler Municipal Council and was followed by Mr. Michael Alien who discussed his studies of the
behavior and ecology of Whistler's black bears.
Thanks to the generous support of the United States Air Force (AFRL, AFOSR, HOARD, and AOARD)
trip support for over 20 regular attendees was possible. Support ranged from waived registration fees to
full trip support for several invited attendees. Keeping with the tradition started by the organizers of
RGD22, support for 6 student attendees was made available. Students supported by the Organizing
Committee were first authors on the manuscripts submitted and presented their work to the Symposium
delegates in oral presentations. The Organizers would like to particularly thank Dr. Ingrid Wysong
(AFOSR/EOARD), Dr. Mitat Birkan (AFOSR), Mr. Thomas Smith (AFRL/PRSA), Mr. Jay Levine
(AFRL/PRSA) and Lt. Col. Mark Nowack (AOARD) for their support of the Symposium
In attempting to preserve the rich technical tradition of the RGD Symposia, several emerging focus areas in
rarefied phenomena were identified by the Symposium Organizing Committee. These focus areas were
micro-and nano-scale flows, hybrid modeling, kinetic treatment of plasmas, RGD applications, and gassurface interactions. These focus areas received special attention at RGD23, and it is anticipated that these
areas will be growth areas for future Symposia. RGD23 was composed of 33 technical sessions (27 oral
and 6 poster) in the following areas:
Boltzmann Equation
Kinetic Theory
Transport Phenomena
Micro- and Nano-Scale Flows
Astrophysics
Hybrid Modeling Methods
Hypersonics
Propulsion
Condensation and Evaporation
DSMC Development
Low Knudsen Number Theory
RGD Applications
Surface Interactions
Processing Plasmas
Rarefied Phenomena
Clusters
There were 13 invited lectures on topics varying from the kinetic treatment of traffic dynamics to the
kinetic modeling of plasmas for material processing applications. Invited speakers were identified in each
of the focus areas which allowed fruitful discussion on these emerging areas in the field of rarefied gas
dynamics. The Harold Grad Lecture, inaugurated at the 17th Symposium, is intended to concentrate on
theoretical developments in rarefied gas flows. The Grad Lecture for RGD 23 was given by Professor
Mikhail Kogan from the Central Aerodynamic Institute (TsAGI) in Moscow, Russia. The Lloyd B.
Thomas Memorial Lecture, inaugurated at the 19th Symposium, is intended to concentrate on experimental
contributions to the understanding of rarefied gas phenomena. The Thomas Lecture for RGD 23 was given
by Professor L.J.F. "Jo" Hermans from the Huygens Laboratory of Leiden University, The Netherlands.
The other invited speakers included Prof. J. Lemaire (Belgium), Prof. J. Wang (USA), Dr. T. Niimi (Japan),
Prof. I. Boyd (USA), Prof. R. Illner (Canada), Prof. D. Shemansky (USA), Prof. K. Nanbu (Japan), Prof. A.
Gallimore (USA), Dr. S. Krylov (Russia), Prof. M. Ivanov (Russia), and Dr. T. Bartel (USA).
There were 230 abstracts received prior to the abstract submission deadline. Of the submitted abstracts,
137 were presented orally at RGD23 and 26 were presented as posters. The session chairmen have
reviewed all of the presented manuscripts before their inclusion in these Proceedings. The manuscripts
were reviewed for technical merit, relevance to RGD, and overall format and clarity. Manuscripts that
were identified as having technical deficiencies were forwarded to a second reviewer for comment. Papers
were rejected from the Proceedings only after concurrence of two or more reviewers. The efforts of the
session chairs during and after the Symposium are greatly appreciated. With the overwhelming number of
papers presented at RGD23, it was not possible to publish all of the manuscripts in the bound proceedings.
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As with the prior Symposium, the CD version contains all of the papers accepted for publication in the
Proceedings.
Holding with ROD tradition, a Symposium outing was organized at the glacially-fed Green Lake.
Activities at the outing included horseback riding, canoeing, boating, fishing, nature hiking, mountain
biking, and volleyball. Taking advantage of the wonderful British Columbia summer weather, the
Symposium banquet was held outdoors at the North Arm Farm in Pemberton, about 30 kilometers north of
Whistler. Once again the Accompanying Persons Program (APP) was very successful with over 30
participants. The APP included many activities including a tour around the Whistler area guided by a
knowledgeable Whistlerite, John Tolmie, a gondola ride up Whistler Mountain, a talk by Michael Alien on
Whistler's black bears, a trip to Shannon Falls, and talks by local artisans in the Whistler area. Special
thanks to Mrs. Jan Furey Muntz, Mr. Eric Muntz, Ms. Terri Schembari, and Ms. Julie Smith for making the
APP a terrific success.
The Symposium Organizers wish to thank the hard work and dedication of Mr. Eric Muntz (website), Ms.
Julie Smith (abstracts and registration), Mrs. Jan Furey Muntz (APP), Ms. Elsie Reyes (payment and
registration), Mr. Joshua Cripps (presentations), Mr. Brian Eccles (presentations and manuscripts), Mr.
Marcus Young (organization), Mr. Andrew Jamison (organization), and Mr. Eric Moore (organization).
We owe all of the success of the Symposium to these individuals who worked together as an amazing team.
The help of Mr. Taylor Lilly is greatly appreciated and has been the only reason that this Proceedings has
been delivered in a timely manner. Mr. Lilly and the Organizers wish to thank each of the contributors to
these Proceedings for their timely submissions and revisions. The Organizers also wish to thank the
wonderful staffs of the Whistler Conference Center, the Edgewater Outdoor Center, the North Arm Farm,
and the American Institute of Physics.
A.D. Ketsdever
E.P. Muntz
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