SHORT WAVELENTH CHEMICAL LASER FLUID DYNAMICS

FLUID DYNAMICS HAS PLAYED MAJOR ROLES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF ALL HIGH POWER CHEMICAL LSERS; E.G., EFFICIENT HF/DF CW CHEMICAL LASERS WOULD NOT BE FEASIBILE WITHOUT THE COUPLING OF SUPERSONIC EXPANSION, FAST DIFFUSION, AND HEAT RELEASE COMPENSATION TECHNIQUES WITH LASER CHEMISTRY PROCESSES. BECAUSE OF THE GENERAL ENERGETIC SIMILARITIES BETWEEN VIBRATIONAL TRANSITION AND ELECTRONIC TRANSITION CHEMICAL LASER MECHANISMS, WE CAN EXPECT THAT THE USE OF FLUID DYNAMICS CONCEPTS WILL BE EQUALLY IMPORTANT IN THE DEMONSTRATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE LATTER AS EFFICIENT, SCALABLE, SHORT WAVELENGTH CHEMICAL LASERS, SWCLS. WE BELIEVE THAT PAST SWCL STUDIES HAVE NOT GIVEN SUFFICIENT ATTENTION TO FLUID DYNAMICS IN DETERMINING THE FEASIBILITY OF PROPOSED LASER MECHANISMS. THEREFORE, A PROGRAM IS PROPOSED WITH THE GOAL OF COUPLING IMPORTANT FLUID DYNAMIC MECHANISMS WITH PROMISING CHEMICAL MECHANISMS TO PRODUCE LASER CONFIGURATIONS WITH OPTIMUM HIGH POWER LASER POTENTIAL. PHASE I IS A 6 MONTH ANALYTICAL STUDY WITH THREE OBJECTIVES: DEVELOPMENT OF GENERALIZED FLUID DYNAMICS MODELS AND ANALYTICAL PROCEDURES, SYNTHESIS OF OPTIMUM LASER CONFIGURATIONS (FOR LABORATORY DEMONSTRATION AND SCALABILITY STUDIES AND FOR SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION) FOR THREE POTENTIAL SWCL MECHANISMS, AND DETAILED DESIGN OF LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS TO BE CONDUCTED IN PHASE II.