Supersonic air flow past a sphere with account for vibrational relaxation

A numerical solution is obtained for the problem of air flow past a sphere under conditions when nonequilibrium excitation of the vibrational degrees of freedom of the molecular components takes place in the shock layer. The problem is solved using the method of [1]. In calculating the relaxation rates account was taken of two processes: 1) transition of the molecular translational energy into vibrational energy during collision; 2) exchange of vibrational energy between the air components. Expressions for the relaxation rates were computed in [2]. The solution indicates that in the state far from equilibrium a relaxation layer is formed near the sphere surface. A comparison is made of the calculated values of the shock standoff with the experimental data of [3].Notation uV_max, vV_max velocity components normal and tangential to the sphere surface - V_max maximal velocity - PV_max² pressure - density - TT temperature - e_viRT vibrational energy of the i-th component per mole (i=–O₂, N₂) - =rb–1 shock wave shape - a_f the frozen speed of sound - HRT/m gas total enthalpy