Ionization and nonequilibrium radiation of air behind strong shock waves

It is shown that at high velocities of shock waves (V 9.5 km/sec) an important factor influencing the rate of ionization is the depletion of the number of excited states of the atoms through de-excitation. In the case of low pressures (p 1 torr) and for a bounded and optically transparent region of gas heated by the shock wave (for example, for the motion of gas in a shock tube or in a shock layer near a blunt body), the effective ionization rate k_f depends on the pressure [1], which leads to violation of the law of binary similarity which holds under these conditions without allowance for de-excitation. On leaving the relaxation zone, the gas arrives at a stationary state with constant parameters differing from those in thermodynamic equilibrium. The electron concentration and also the radiation intensity in the continuum and the lines are lower than the values for thermodynamic equilibrium. These considerations explain the results of known experiments and some new experiments on ionization and radiation of air behind a travelling shock wave.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 1, pp. 105–112, January–February, 1980.