Abstract: | 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. |