SPECTROSCOPIC MEASUREMENTS AND NON-EQUILIBRIUM MODELING FOR HIGH-ENTHALPY AIR

Abstract

New flight vehicle concepts are being developed that involve sustained flight at high speeds in the atmosphere, including near-space, where nonequilibrium effects become important. To support this endeavor, new nonequilibrium chemistry models for high-temperature air are under development using results from computational chemistry. However, the validation of kinetic models for flight applications is hampered by the lack of experimental data that directly probe molecular interactions in hypersonic flows. A research collaboration between Caltech, Stanford, and the University of Minnesota (MN) is proposed to apply spectroscopic measurement techniques to probe molecular and atomic states in hypervelocity, nonequilibrium air flows directly. First-principles modeling efforts will be extended to predict recombination chemistry under thermal nonequilibrium conditions and to include electronic energy excitation. Experimental configurations and conditions will be selected collaboratively, extending previous work in dissociating flows to both recombining flows and flows with electronically-excited states.

Document Details

Document Type
DoD Grant Award
Publication Date
Mar 06, 2024
Source ID
FA95502310446

Entities

People

  • Joanna Austin

Organizations

  • Air Force Office of Scientific Research
  • California Institute of Technology
  • United States Air Force

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Fluid Dynamics.
  • Molecular Photonics/Laser Physics
  • Research Science/Academic Research

Technology Areas

  • Hypersonics
  • Hypersonics - Hypersonic Flight
  • Hypersonics - Hypersonic Flow
  • Microelectronics
  • Space
  • Space - Hall-Effect Thruster