RV BOUNDARY LAYER PLASMA

CARBON, EPOXY AND TEFLON ARE SOME OF THE MOST COMMON AND FREQUENTLY USED MATERIALS FOR RV APPLICATIONS. UNDER HYPERSONIC REENTRY CONDITIONS AT HIGH ANGLES OF ATTACK THE ABLATION PRODUCTS FROM THESE MATERIALS MAY SIGNIFICANTY AFFECT THE FLOWFIELD CHEMISTRY AROUND THE BODY, THE ELECTRON CONCENTRATION IN THE SHOCK-LAYER AND THE INITIAL PROFILE DATA FOR THE WAKE CALCULATIONS. IN THIS EFFORT WE PROPOSE TO DEVELOP A COMPUTATIONAL SCHEME FOR PREDICTING SUCH NONEQUILIBRUIM FLOWFIELDS. IN PHASE I OF THIS EFFORT, WE WILL STUDY THE VISCOUS HYPERSONIC REENTRY FLOWS AT MODERATE ANGLES OF ATTACK IN A CARBON-AIR SYSTEM. WE WILL EXTEND AND MODIFY OUR EXISTING THREE DIMENSIONAL NONEQUILIBRIUM VISCOUS SHOCK-LAYER SCHEMES (FOR AIR ONLY) TO INCLUDE A FINITE-RATE CHEMICALLY REACTING CARBON-AIR GAS CHEMISTRY MODEL, AND RUN SOME SAMPLE CASES TO VALIDATE THE CODE. IN PHASE II, WE WILL EXTEND THIS SCHEME TO STUDY MORE COMPLICATED SYSTEMS COMPOSED OF TEFLON AD EPOXY ABLATION PRODUCTS IN FINITE-RATE CHEMICALLY REACTING AIR. DUE TO THE LARGE NUMBER OF SPECIES INVOLVED, A MAJOR PART OF THE EFFORT WILL INVOLVE AN EXTENSIVE LITERATURE SURVEY TO OBTAIN THE THERMODYNAMIC, TRANSPORT AD THERMOCHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF THES SPECIES AD THE REACTION RATE DATA.