Non equilibrium reaction rates in air flows behind shock waves. State to state and three temperature description
Non equilibrium reaction rates in the flows of the five component air mixture N2/O2/NO/N/O in the relaxation zone behind shock waves are studied on the basis of the state to state, three temperature and one temperature kinetic theory approaches. State dependent rate coefficients for N2 and O2 dissociation and Zeldovich exchange reactions are averaged using 1) state to state vibrational distributions, 2) two temperature Treanor distributions and 3) thermal equilibrium distributions. Variation of global reaction rate coefficients obtained in different approaches along the relaxation zone is studied numerically for free stream Mach number M 13 and difflerences between reaction rate coefficients found in the frame of the state to state and more simple kinetic models are evaluated.