Rapid kinetics
Hybrid program for chemical kinetics provides rapid solution to problems involving flowing or static, chemically reacting, gas mixtures.
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Hybrid program for chemical kinetics provides rapid solution to problems involving flowing or static, chemically reacting, gas mixtures.
The space shuttle orbiter has forward mounted and rear mounted Reaction Control Systems (RCS) which are used for orbital maneuvering and also provide control during entry and abort maneuvers in the atmosphere. The effects of interaction between the RCS jets and the flow over the vehicle in the atmosphere are studied. Test data obtained in the NASA Langley Research Center 31 inch continuous flow hypersonic tunnel at a nominal Mach number of 10.3 is analyzed. The data were obtained with a 0.01 scale force model with aft mounted RCS nozzles mounted on the sting off of the force model balance. The plume simulations were accomplished primarily using air in a cold gas simulation through scaled nozzles, however, various cold gas mixtures of Helium and Argon were also tested. The effect of number of nozzles was tested as were limited tests of combined controls. The data show that RCS nozzle exit momentum ratio is the primary correlating parameter for effects where the plume impinges on an adjacent surface and mass flow ratio is the parameter where the plume interaction is primarily with the external stream. An analytic model of aft mounted RCS units was developed in which the total reaction control moments are the sum of thrust, impingement, interaction, and cross-coupling terms.
The entropy of a gas system with the number of particles subject to external control is maximized to derive relations between the thermodynamic variables that obtain at equilibrium. These relations are described in terms of the chemical potential, defined as equivalent partial derivatives of entropy, energy, enthalpy, free energy, or free enthalpy. At equilibrium, the change in total chemical potential must vanish. This fact is used to derive the equilibrium constants for chemical reactions in terms of the partition functions of the species involved in the reaction. Thus the equilibrium constants can be determined accurately, just as other thermodynamic properties, from a knowledge of the energy levels and degeneracies for the gas species involved. These equilibrium constants permit one to calculate the equilibrium concentrations or partial pressures of chemically reacting species that occur in gas mixtures at any given condition of pressure and temperature or volume and temperature.
A hybrid chemical kinetic computer program was assembled which provides a rapid solution to problems involving flowing or static, chemically reacting, gas mixtures. The computer program uses existing subroutines for problem setup, initialization, and preliminary calculations and incorporates a stiff ordinary differential equation solution technique. A number of check cases were recomputed with the hybrid program and the results were almost identical to those previously obtained. The computational time saving was demonstrated with a propane-oxygen-argon shock tube combustion problem involving 31 chemical species and 64 reactions. Information is presented to enable potential users to prepare an input data deck for the calculation of a problem.
The sulfidation of SAE 310 stainless steel was carried out in gas mixtures of hydrogen and hydrogen sulfide over a range of sulfur potentials anticipated in advanced coal gasification processes. The kinetics, composition, and morphology of sulfide scale formation were studied at a fixed temperature of 1,065 K over a range of sulfur potentials from .00015 Nm to the -2nd power to 900 Nm to the -2nd power. At all sulfur potentials investigated, the sulfide scales were found to be multilayered. The relative thickness of the individual layers as well as the composition was found to depend on the sulfur potential. The reaction was found to obey the parabolic rate law after an initial transient period. Considerably longer transient periods were found to be due to unsteady state conditions resulting from compositional variations in the spinel layer. The sulfur pressure dependence on the parabolic rate constant was found to best fit the equation K sub p equals const. (P sub S2) to the 1/nth power, where n equals 3.7. The growth of the outer layers was found to be primarily due to the diffusion of metal ions, iron being the predominant species. The inner layer growth was due to the dissociation of the primary product at the alloy scale interface and depended on the activity of chromium.
Measurements of vibrational energy transfer probabilities are presented for the temperature range 205-360 K for HF-DF, HF-CO2, and DF-CO2 gas mixtures. The present results provide an accurate determination of the inverse temperature dependence of the energy transfer probabilities exhibited by these systems. Large deactivation effects caused by HF (DF) polymers were observed for temperatures below 220 K.
A rapid noninvasive breathing method is used to obtain serial measurements of the pulmonary capillary blood flow, diffusing capacity per unit of alveolar volume, combined pulmonary tissue plus capillary volume, functional residual capacity, and oxygen consumption in five normal subjects undergoing 6 h of sitting, 4 h of sitting while immersed to the neck in thermoneutral water, and 4 h of lying in thermoneutral water to the neck. The rebreathing method employed a test gas mixture containing 0.5% C2H2, 0.3% C(18)O, 10% He, 21% O2, and balance N2. It is shown that immersion to the neck in the seated posture results in significant increases in sodium excretion cardiac output, and diffusing capacity per unit of alveolar volume. The pulmonary tissue plus capillary volume did not change, demonstrating that the central vascular engorgement induced by water immersion is not accompanied by significant extravasation of fluid into the pulmonary interstitial space.
A description is given and calibration procedures are presented for an apparatus that is used to simulate aerodynamic radiant heating during planetary entry. The primary function of the apparatus is to simulate the spectral distribution of shock layer radiation and to determine absorption effects of simulated ablation products which are injected into the stagnation region flow field. An electric arc heater is used to heat gas mixtures that represent the planetary atmospheres of interest. Spectral measurements are made with a vacuum ultraviolet scanning monochromator.
A spectrogram of a fast optical meteor was reduced and analyzed, and 60 features were identified in the spectrum. Air and ionized elements in this meteor radiate throughout the spectrum from 3000 A to 6800 A. A mass of 9 mg and an effective radiation temperature of approximately 5700 K were computed for the meteor. Weight ratios of Ca:Fe, and Mg:Fe, and Na:Fe were computed. A plasma particle velocity distribution for meteors was derived, and the average collision speed obtained from this distribution was compared with the relative collision speed of a Fe-N2 gas mixture at 5700 K.
Tabulated data of an experimental investigation are presented which was conducted in the AEDC/VKF Tunnel B to obtain interaction effects of RCS thruster jet plumes on SSV aerodynamics during staging to simulate RTLS abort. Interaction effects of the orbiter RCS thruster jet plumes on the orbiter and ET aerodynamics were investigated. RCS thruster jet plumes were simulated using both air and a 15 percent argon 85 percent helium gas mixture. The ET angle of attack range was -40 to +25 deg at sideslip angles of 0, 3, and 6 degrees. Orbiter angle of attack was varied from -15 to +10 degrees at sideslip angles of 0 and 3 deg. External tank full scale separation distances simulated were 0 to 1400 in. axially; 0 to 54 in. laterally; and a range of -100 to 1000 in. vertically. Data were also obtained on the ET in the interference-free flow field. Quiescent (no tunnel flow) thruster plume interaction data were obtained on the orbiter and orbiter-ET combination. Tests were conducted at Mach number 6 and a Reynolds number of 0.86 million per foot.
A detailed theoretical investigation has been made of the condensation of water vapor/carrier gas mixtures in the nonstationary rarefaction wave generated in a shock tube. It is assumed that condensation takes place by homogeneous nucleation. The equations of motion together with the nucleation rate and the droplet growth equations were solved numerically by the method of characteristics and Lax's method of implicit artificial viscosity. It is found that, for the case considered, the condensation wave formed by the collapse of the metastable nonequilibrium state is followed by a shock wave generated by the intersection of characteristics of the same family. The expansion is practically isentropic up to the onset of condensation. The condensation front accelerates in the x,t plane. The results of the computations for a chosen case of water vapor/nitrogen mixture are presented by plotting variations of pressure, nucleation rate, number density of critical clusters, and condensate mass-fraction along three particle paths. Some consideration is given to homogeneous condensation experiments conducted in a shock tube. Although a direct comparison of the present theoretical work and these experiments is not possible, several worthwhile interpretative features have resulted nevertheless.
Test gas mixtures containing SiO, SiO2, Si2, and SiH were produced in a shock tube by processing shock waves through a mixture of SiCl4 + N2O + Ar, SiH4 + Ar, or SiH4 + O2 + Ar. Absorption spectra of the test gases were studied photographically in the reflected shock region using a xenon flash lamp as the light source in the range of wavelengths between 250 and 600 nm. SiO was found to be a dominant species in the vapors produced by the SiCl4 + N2O and SiH4 + O2 mixtures. Spontaneous combustion was observed in the SiH4 + O2 + Ar mixture prior to the shock arrival, and the resulting solid SiO2 particles evaporated behind the shock wave. Spectral absorption characteristics of SiO, SiO2, Si2, and SiH were determined by studying the test gases.
The sulfidation of SAE 310 stainless steel was carried out in gas mixtures of hydrogen and hydrogen sulfide over a range of sulfur potentials anticipated in advanced coal gasification processes. The kinetics, composition, and morphology of sulfide scale formation were studied at a fixed temperature of 1065 K over a range of sulfur potentials from .00015N/sqm to 900N/sqm. At all sulfur potentials investigated, the sulfide scales were found to be multilayered. The relative thickness of the individual layers as well as the composition was found to depend on the sulfur potential. The reaction was found to obey the parabolic rate law after an initial transient period. Considerably longer transient periods were found to be due to unsteady state conditions resulting from compositional variations in the spinel layer.
A computer program for determining desired thermodynamic and transport property values by means of a three-dimensional (pressure, fuel-air ratio, and either enthalpy or temperature) interpolation routine was developed. The program calculates temperature (or enthalpy), molecular weight, viscosity, specific heat at constant pressure, thermal conductivity, isentropic exponent (equal to the specific heat ratio at conditions where gases do not react), Prandtl number, and entropy for air and a combustion gas mixture of ASTM-A-1 fuel and air over fuel-air ratios from zero to stoichiometric, pressures from 1 to 40 atm, and temperatures from 250 to 2800 K.
Recent direct nuclear pumped laser research has concentrated on experiments with three gas mixtures (Ne-N2, He-Ne-O2, and He-Hg). One mixture has been made to lase and gain has been achieved with the other two. All three of these mixtures are discussed with particular attention paid to He-Hg. Of interest is the 6150-angstroms ion transition in Hg(+). The upper state of this transition is formed directly by charge transfer and by Penning ionization.
An analysis of condensation problems in rotating heat pipes containing vapors with different concentrations of non-condensable gases is given. In situations such as this, temperature and concentration gradients are set up in the vapor-gas mixture. There is a transport of mass due to temperature gradients accompanied by an energy transport phenomena due to a concentration gradient. A Nusselt type analysis is not suited to this type of problem; however, a boundary layer type approach has successfully been used to analyze stationary condensation systems with non-condensable gases present. The present boundary layer analysis is presented for condensation processes on the inside of a rotating heat pipe in the presence of non-condensable gases.
The equations governing the laminar and turbulent flows of reacting gas mixtures in chemical equilibrium over axially symmetric blunt bodies at small angles of attack are developed and presented in the unsteady conservative form. Solutions are obtained in the planes of symmetry of the flow field for the typical conditions encountered by a probe entering the Jovian atmosphere at small angles of attack. The eddy-viscosity is approximated by a two-layer model. The shock wave is treated as a discontinuity across which the shock relations are used to compute the flow conditions behind the shock. A time-asymptotic finite-difference method is used to solve the equations. The zero angle of attack results for a hyperboloid are compared with the existing results but neither experimental nor computational results are available for comparison with the present results at angle of attack.
Transport properties in a Jupiter-like atmosphere (89 mol % hydrogen and 11 mol % helium) are obtained by using the method of the kinetic theory of gases. The transport collision integrals are calculated by fitting various two-body semiempirical interaction potentials for which the collision integrals are tabulated to ab initio quantum mechanical calculations of the two-body interactions. The collision integrals are used to calculate the binary diffusion coefficients, viscosity, and 'total' thermal conductivity of the pure gases and the gas mixtures at 1-atm pressure from 1000 K to 25,000 K.