Influence of excitation of internal degrees of freedom of molecules on the process of weak evaporation or condensation

A study is made of the process of weak evaporation (or condensation) with allowance for excitation of vibrational and rotational degrees of freedom of diatomic molecules. The solution to the corresponding Knudsen layer problem is obtained on the basis of a model kinetic equation of the type of the Morse equation [1]. A relation is obtained that establishes the connection between the rate of evaporation (or condensation) and the parameters of the surface and the gas above it. The boundary conditions of slip for the equations of gas dynamics are analyzed. The results are compared with the evaporation or condensation in the case of a monatomic gas. The introduction of accommodation coefficients for an evaporating surface is considered.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 6. pp. 98–110, November–December, 1979.     

Calculation of nonequilibrium distribution functions and dissociation rate of diatomic molecules in a boundary layer

The effect of the nonequilibrium velocity and rotation distributions of the dissociating molecules on the population of the upper vibrational levels and the dissociation rate, when the reaction kinetics are strongly influenced by the motion of the gas, is analyzed by solving the Boltzmann equation by a method permitting the calculation of the distribution function under conditions of strong disequilibrium.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 2, pp. 165–172, March–April, 1989.     

Nonequilibrium dissociation of diatomic molecules in flows with convective and diffusive particle transport

The nonequilibrium effects in the kinetics of the thermal dissociation which occurs in a streaming gas of diatomic molecules are investigated. Expressions are obtained for the macroscopic reaction rate and the vibrational energy distribution of the molecules, taking into account the influence of the gas motion. Cases of flows with convective and diffusive particle transport are considered. The dissociating molecules are simulated by cutoff harmonic oscillators. The vibrational kinetics is described in the framework of the so-called diffusion approximation.Translated fron Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 6, pp. 147–153, November–December, 1985.     

Thermal blooming of variable-radius beams in an approximation of small-perturbation theory

A general solution of the equations of geometrical optics is obtained that describes the weak thermal blooming of optical beams whose radius in the absence of blooming varies according to a known law (in particular, these are focused or defocused beams).Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 36, No. 2, pp. 135–142, February, 1993.     

The noneouilibrium dissociation of diatomic molecules in a boundary layer

A study is made of the influence of the process of diffusion of diatomic molecules on the rate of their thermal dissociation. On the basis of the ladder model of the dissociation of molecules — truncated harmonic oscillators — an expression is obtained for the macroscopic reaction rate which depends explicitly and exponentially on the square of the gradient of the gas temperature. The molecules constitute a small admixture in a monatomic inert gas. The effect of the diffusion on the rate of dissociation is illustrated by the results of numerical calculation of the flow in the boundary layer around the stagnation point of a blunt body.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Shidkosti i Gaza, No. 1, pp. 161–170, January–February, 1985.     

Region of applicability and the main features of the generalized Chapman-Enskog method

The present paper is made necessary by the publication of the foregoing paper in this issue by Kolesnichenko [1]. It considers the basic propositions of the generalized Chapman-Enskog method and analyzes the arguments put forward by Kolesnichenko [1] and the validity of the method. The position of the results obtained by Kolesnichenko [14–17] is indicated. Nonequilibrium flows of multiatomic gases in which there occur processes of exchange of internal energy of the molecules in collisions between them and chemical reactions (such processes are called inelastic) are encountered frequently in nature and technology. It is therefore naturally of interest to derive gas-dynamic equations for such flows. The methods of the kinetic theory of gases were first used to obtain equations describing the limiting cases of very fast inelastic processes that take place in times of the order of the molecule-molecule collision times (equilibrium case) and very slow inelastic processes that take place over times of the order of the characteristic flow time (relaxation case). In [2–5], an algorithm was proposed for deriving gas-dynamic equations valid for arbitrary ratios of the rates of the elastic and inelastic processes and reducing to the well-known equations for the limiting cases already mentioned. The algorithm is called the generalized Chapman-Enskog method (abbreviated to the generalized method). The development, modification, and analysis of its properties can be found in [4, 6–13]. In [1], Kolesnichenko has questioned the validity of this algorithm.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 3, pp. 126–136, May–June, 1984.We thank V. A. Rykov for helpful and constructive discussions of the work.