THE WAKE OF A CATALYTIC FLAT PLATE IN A LOW DENSITY DISSOCIATED GAS FLOW.
Abstract
Experimental measurements of the concentration profiles in the wake of a catalytic flat plate are reported. Tests were conducted in a glow discharge tube at pressures of .1 to 1 Torr, using oxygen as the working gas and centerline velocities on the order of 1000 cm/sec. The oxygen was weakly dissociated (about 5%) by a radio frequency driven induction coil, upstream of the test section. The flow then passed a silver coated flat plate, which catalytically recombined the oxygen in its vicinity. The resulting concentration wake was then surveyed using a constant temperature hot catalytic thermistor probe. A concentration analog to the classical laminar momentum solution for the wake of a flat plate at zero incidence was proposed with the diffusivity playing an analogous role to the kinematic viscosity. Tests conducted at plate Knudsen numbers of .110 and .330 produced good correlation with the classical continuum wake theory, even though these flows were conducted in a regime where continuum theory loses its validity. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 15, 1970
- Accession Number
- AD0711291
Entities
People
- Daniel L. Pike
Organizations
- United States Naval Academy