Computations of the Shock Waves at Hypersonic Velocities Taken into Account the Chemical Reactions that Appear in the Air at High Temperatures

Abstract

The temperature in the nose region of a hypersonic vehicle can be extremely high, for example, reaching approximately 11 000 K at a Mach number of 36 (Apollo reentry). The bow shock wave is normal, or nearly normal, in the nose region of a blunt body, and the gas temperature behind this shock wave can be enormous at hypersonic speeds. In this case, the assumption of a calorically perfect nonreacting gas with the ratio of specific heats  of 1.4 gives an unrealistically high value of temperature. Therefore, the proper inclusion of chemically reacting effects is vital to the calculation of an accurate normal shock wave temperature.

Keywords

• Hypersonic flow
• shock waves
• chemical reactions
• CFD
• capsule reentry