Stability theory for chemically reacting flows

Linear stability theory for chemically reacting (equilibrium and nonequilibrium) flows is applied to study the stability of hypersonic boundary layers under the equilibrium assumption. The results for Mach 15 flow indicate that the second mode instability shifts to lower frequencies, as compared to the perfect gas results. The peak second mode growth rate is also increased for the equilibrium gas model. However, the results for Goertler instability show very little real gas effect. The present theory has been applied to a sphere-cone flight transition experiment performed at freestream Mach of about 20.