Hypervelocity atmospheric flight: Real gas flow fields

Flight in the atmosphere is examined from the viewpoint of including real gas phenomena in the flow field about a vehicle flying at hypervelocity. That is to say, the flow field is subject not only to compressible phenomena, but is dominated by energetic phenomena. There are several significant features of such a flow field. Spatially, its composition can vary by both chemical and elemental species. The equations which describe the flow field include equations of state and mass, species, elemental, and electric charge continuity; momentum; and energy equations. These are nonlinear, coupled, partial differential equations that were reduced to a relatively compact set of equations of a self-consistent manner (which allows mass addition at the surface at a rate comparable to the free-stream mass flux). The equations and their inputs allow for transport of these quantities relative to the mass-averaged behavior of the flow field. Thus transport of mass by chemical, thermal, pressure, and forced diffusion; transport of momentum by viscosity; and transport of energy by conduction, chemical considerations, viscosity, and radiative transfer are included. The last of these complicate the set of equations by making the energy equation a partial integrodifferential equation. Each phenomenon is considered and represented mathematically by one or more developments. The coefficients which pertain are both thermodynamically and chemically dependent. Solutions of the equations are presented and discussed in considerable detail, with emphasis on severe energetic flow fields. For hypervelocity flight in low-density environments where gaseous reactions proceed at finite rates, chemical nonequilibrium is considered and some illustrations are presented. Finally, flight where the flow field may be out of equilibrium, both chemically and thermodynamically, is presented briefly.