Measurements of non-equilibrium and equilibrium temperature behind a strong shock wave in simulated martian atmosphere

Non-equilibrium radiation measurements behind strong shock wave for simulated Martian atmosphere are presented in this paper. The shock wave is established in a hydrogen oxygen combustion driven shock tube. Time- resolved spectra of the Av = 0 sequence of the B^2∑^＋ → X^2∑^＋ electronic transition of CN have been observed through optical emission spectroscopy （OES）. A new method, which is based on fitting high resolution spectrum for rotational and vibrational temperatures measurement, is proposed to diag- nose temperature distribution behind the shock wave. It is estimated that the current scheme has the maximum deviation less than 8% （lσ） for vibrational temperature measurement through detailed analysis of the influence of the uncertainties of spectroscopic constants and spectral resolution. Radiation structure of the shock layer, including induction, relaxation and equilibrium process, and corresponding rotational and vibrational temperatures are obtained through time gating OES diagnostics with sub-microsecond temporal resolution. The present extensive results will strongly benefit the reaction rate estimation and computational fluid dynamics （CFD） code validation in high enthalpy Mars reentry chemistry.

Sufficiently diffused attachment of nitrogen arc by gasdynamic action

For realizing diffused anode attachment in pure nitrogen arcs, a special arc plasma generator was designed and combined with suitable working parameters such as gas flow rate and arc current. The anode has a flow-restrictor channel of 2.8 mm diameter and downstream expansion half-angle of 8°, with the purpose of creating a dispersed nitrogen-arc column by strong gasdynamic expansion effect. Results show that, when thermal blocking condition existed in the flow restrictor and the cathode cavity pressure was higher than that in the exit chamber by at least 9 kPa, the action due to gasdynamic expansion could be much stronger than the self-magnetic contraction effect of the arc and the nitrogen arc column could be effectively dispersed to form a sufficiently diffused attachment on the water-cooled anode surface.

Estimating energy release performance of oxidizer-activated aluminum fuel particles under ultrafast stimulus

Aluminum(Al) particles are good fuel additives to improve the energy output performances of explosives. Under detonation environment, reaction delay of Al particles plays a key role in the energy release efficiency. Up to date, reaction delay of Al particles is still limited by the efficiency of mass and heat transfer from oxidizers to Al particles. To address this issue, a homogeneous fuel-oxidizer assembly has recently become a promising strategy. In this work, oxidizer-activated Al fuel particles(ALG) were prepared with glycidyl azide polymer(GAP) as the oxidizer. The ALG was in uniform spherical shape and core-shell structure with shell layer of around 5 nm which was observed by scanning electron microscope and transmission electron microscope. The localized nanoscale mid-IR measurement detected the uniform distribution of characteristic absorption bond of GAP in the shell layer which confirmed the homogenous fuel-oxidizer structure of ALG. A thermal gravimetric analysis of ALG at ultrafast heating rate of 1000℃/min under argon atmosphere was conducted. The decomposition of GAP finished much earlier than that of GAP at heating rate of 10℃/min. Under ultrafast high laser fluence, the reaction response of ALG was characterized and compared with that of micro-sized Al(μAl). With the increase of laser energy, the propagation distance of the shock wave increased. However, the velocity histories were nearly the same when energies were lower than 299 mJ or higher than 706 mJ. The propagation distance of the shock wave for ALG was 0.5 mm larger than that for μAl at 2.1 μs. The underwater explosion showed the peak pressure and the shock wave energy of the ALG-based explosive were both higher than those of the μAl-based explosive at 2.5 m. This study shows the feasibility to improve the energy release of Al-based explosives via using the oxidizer-activated Al fuel particles with energetic polymer as the oxidizer.

Determination of Temperatures Using CH Radical Emission Spectroscopy

An improved Boltzmann plot method where the intensity is taken as the integral of the experimental spectrum within a special band for a cluster of a rotational line of R and Q branches is proposed.This method aims at deducing rotational and vibrational temperatures using CH radical A^(2)Δ→X^(2)Πband emission spectroscopy accurately.In addition,the data relative to the rotation lines of CH(A^(2)Δ→X^(2)Π)for both temperatures are assembled.The emission spectrum of CH(A^(2)Δ→X^(2)Π)at the inner cone of an acetylene-oxygen flame in a rich oxygen state is recorded and both of the temperatures are determined by the above-mentioned method.The values are recorded as 3141 K and 3097 K,for the rotational and vibrational temperatures,respectively.This result reveals that the equilibrium between the rotation and vibration states is achieved.A simple discussion for this method is also provided.

Investigation of radial heat conduction with 1D self-consistent model in helicon plasmas

A 1D radially self-consistent model in helicon plasmas has been established to investigate the influence of radial heat conduction on plasma transport and wave propagation.Two kinds of 1D radial fluid models,with and without considering heat conduction,have been developed to couple the 1D plasma-wave interaction model,and self-consistent solutions have been obtained.It is concluded that in the low magnetic field range the radial heat conduction plays a moderate role in the transport of helicon plasmas and the importance depends on the application of the helicon source.It influences the local energy balance leading to enhancement of the electron temperature in the bulk region and a decrease in plasma density.The power deposition in the plasma is mainly balanced by collisional processes and axial diffusion,whereas it is compensated by heat conduction in the bulk region and consumed near the boundary.The role of radial heat conduction in the large magnetic field regime becomes negligible and the two fluid models show consistency.The local power balance,especially near the wall,is improved when conductive heat is taken into account.

Numerical study of the radio-frequency biased accelerating system in ion thrusters

A 2D-3V implicit immersed-finite-element particle-in-cell(IFE-PIC)model is introduced to investigate the radio-frequency(RF)self-bias accelerating system applied in the RF ion thruster.A set of holes in a two-grid system with slit apertures is simulated in Cartesian coordinates.The characteristics of the plasma plume,such as the ion density,the neutralization rate and the ion and electron current density were investigated for different RF voltage amplitudes(600-1200V)and frequencies(6-30 MHz).Furthermore,the performance of the thruster was also carefully studied.The simulation results show that a well-focused plasma beam can be formed when the voltage amplitude is larger than 900 V and the frequency exceeds the reciprocal of ion transit time(≥12 MHz)in our simulation cases.The performance of the system can be evidently improved by increasing the voltage amplitude and the frequency,and the losses of the particle and thrust are reduced correspondingly.The bulk region of the plasma beam downstream shows good quasi-neutrality,and the ions are dominant in the peripheral region when a well-focused state is achieved.The high ion density beamlet in the periphery of the ion beam is closer to the axis when the voltage amplitude is increasing,while it is expanded radially when increasing the frequency.Backstream electrons have been observed upstream,and this mainly occurs in the phase in which the electron cannot escape.

Effect of humidity on microstructure and properties of YBCO film prepared by TFA-MOD method

Epitaxial YBCO superconducting films were deposited on the single crystal LaAlO3 （001） substrate by metal organic deposition method. All YBCO films were fired at 820 ℃ in humidity range of 2.6%-19.7% atmosphere. Microstructure of YBCO thin films was analyzed by means of X-ray diffraction （XRD） and scanning electron microscopy （SEM）. Superconducting properties of YBCO films were measured by four-probe method. XRD results showed that the second phase （such as BaF2）and a-axis-oriented grains existed in the films prepared at 2.6% humidity condition; a-axis-oriented grains increased in the film prepared at higher than 4.2% humidity condition; almost pure c-axias-oriented grains existed in the films fired at 4.2% humidity condition. Morphologies of the YBCO films showed that all films had a smooth and crack-free surface. YBCO film prepared at 4.2% humidity condition showed Jc value of 3.3 MA/cm^2 at 77 K in self-field.

Half-Cell Law of Regular Cellular Detonations

Numerical simulations illustrate the half-cell law of regular cellular detonations propagating in confined space, i.e., the number of cells always maintains an integral multiple of half cell. The cells adapt themselves larger or smaller to the size of the unconfined space by maintaining the cell scale larger or smaller than the original cells of detonation.

Reconsideration on the role of the specific heat ratio in Arrhenius law applications

Arrhenius law implicates that only those molecules which possess the internal energy greater than the activation energy Ea can react. However, the internal energy will not be proportional to the gas temperature if the specific heat ratio y and the gas constant R vary during chemical reaction processes. The varying y may affect significantly the chemical reaction rate calculated with the Arrhenius law under the constant γ assumption, which has been widely accepted in detonation and combustion simulations for many years. In this paper, the roles of variable γ and R in Arrhenius law applications are reconsidered, and their effects on the chemical reaction rate are demonstrated by simulating one- dimensional C-J and two-dimensional cellular detonations. A new overall one-step detonation model with variable γ and R is proposed to improve the Arrhenius law. Numerical experiments demonstrate that this improved Arrhenius law works well in predicting detonation phenomena with the numerical results being in good agreement with experimental data.

Numerical study of convective heat transfer of a supersonic combustor with varied inlet flow conditions

Characteristics of convective heat transfer of a supersonic model combustor with variable inlet flow conditions were studied by numerical simulation in this paper.The three-dimensional flow and wall heat flux at different air inlet Mach numbers of 2.2,2.8 and 3.2 were studied numerically with Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations with a shear-stress transport(SST)k-ωturbulence model and a three-step reaction model.Meanwhile,ethylene was chosen as the fuel,and the fixed fuel-to-air equivalence ratio is 0.8 in all cases in this paper.The results of the simulations indicate that wall heat flux distribution of the combustor is very non-uniform with several peaks of wall heat flux at varied locations.For the low inlet Mach number of 2.2,a shock train structure is formed in the isolator,and three peaks of wall heat flux are located respectively on the backward face of the cavity,on the side wall near the fuel injection and on the bottom wall near the injection holes,and a maximum wall heat flux reaches 5.4 MW/m2.For the medium inlet Mach number of 2.8,there exists a much shorter shock structure with three peaks of wall heat flux similar to that of Mach number 2.2.However,as the inlet Mach number increased to 3.2,there is no shock structure upstream of fuel injections,and the combustor flow is in a supersonic mode with different locations and values of wall heat flux peaks.The statistical results of wall heat loading show that the change of total wall heat is not monotonic with the increase of inlet Mach number,and the maximum appears in the case of Mach number being 2.8.Meanwhile,for all the cases,the bottom wall takes up more than 50%of the total heat loading.

Direct Numerical Simulation of Chemical Non-equilibrium Turbulent Flow

Temporally evolving high-temperature turbulent channel flows(at Ma_(∞)=6 and 10 and Re_(∞)=12000)are performed by using direct numerical simulation with the assumption of local thermal equilibrium and chemical non-equilibrium.The turbulent statistical characteristics are studied.We find that the Morkovin theory for the Van Direst transformed velocity remains valid,while the compressibility effects need to be considered since the turbulent Mach number is high enough,especially for the higher Mach number case.The dissociation/recombination reactions are excited,which are proved by the mean temperature,mass fractions and specific heat ratio.The importance of the mean property variations is studied from the rms velocity and mass fraction fluctuations.

Development of efficient and accurate skeletal mechanisms for hydrocarbon fuels and kerosene surrogate

In this paper,the methodology of the directed relation graph with error propagation and sensitivity analysis（DRGEPSA）,proposed by Niemeyer et al.（Combust Flame 157：1760-1770.2010）.and its differences to the original directed relation graph method are described.Using DRGEPSA,the detailed mechanism of ethylene containing 71 species and 395 reaction steps is reduced to several skeletal mechanisms with different error thresholds.The 25-species and 131-step mechanism and the 24-species and115-step mechanism are found to be accurate for the predictions of ignition delay time and laminar flame speed.Although further reduction leads to a smaller skeletal mechanism with 19 species and 68 steps,it is no longer able to represent the correct reaction processes.With the DRGEPSA method,a detailed mechanism for n-dodecane considering low-temperature chemistry and containing 2115 species and8157 steps is reduced to a much smaller mechanism with249 species and 910 steps while retaining good accuracy.If considering only high-temperature（higher than 1000 K）applications,the detailed mechanism can be simplified to even smaller mechanisms with 65 species and 340 steps or48 species and 220 steps.Furthermore,a detailed mechanism for a kerosene surrogate having 207 species and 1592 steps is reduced with various error thresholds and the results show that the 72-species and 429-step mechanism and the66-species and 392-step mechanism are capable of predicting correct combustion properties compared to those of the detailed mechanism.It is well recognized that kinetic mechanisms can be effectively used in computations only after they are reduced to an acceptable size level for computation capacity and at the same time retaining accuracy.Thus,the skeletal mechanisms generated from the present work are expected to be useful for the application of kinetic mechanisms of hydrocarbons to numerical simulations of turbulent or supersonic combustion.

Simulation of shear layers interaction and unsteady evolution under different double backward-facing steps

High-order accurate schemes are employed to numerically simulate the interaction of a supersonic jet and a co-directional supersonic inflow. A double backward-facing step model is proposed to investigate the interaction between the jet shear layer and the supersonic inflow shear layer. It is found that due to the interaction of the shear layer, a secondary jet is injected into the recirculation zone at the intersection of the two shear layers. The secondary jet produced by the interaction of the two shear layers has a periodicity because of shear layers interaction. The distinction in the shape of double backward-facing steps will induce changes in the period of the secondary jet. The analysis and discussion of the periodicity of the secondary jet are mainly focused in this letter.

Spatial resolved temperature measurement based on absorption spectroscopy using a single tunable diode laser

A novel method based on wavelength-multiplexed line-of-sight absorption and profile fitting for nonuniform flow field measurement is reported. A wavelength scanning combing laser temperature and current modulation WMS scheme is used to implement the wavelength-multi- plexed-profile fitting method. Second harmonic （2f） signal of eight H20 transitions features near 7,170 cm^-1 are measured in one period using a single tunable diode laser. Spatial resolved temperature distribution upon a CH4/air premixed flat flame burner is obtained. The result validates the feasibility of strategy for non-uniform flow field diagnostics by means of WMS-2f TDLAS.

Cellular Cell Bifurcation of Cylindrical Detonations

Cellular cell pattern evolution of cylindrically-diverging detonations is numerically simulated successfully by solving two-dimensional Euler equations implemented with an improved two-step chemical kinetic model. From the simulation, three cell bifurcation modes are observed during the evolution and referred to as concave front focusing, kinked and wrinkled wave front instability, and self-merging of cellular cells. Numerical research demonstrates that the wave front expansion resulted from detonation front diverging plays a major role in the cellular cell bifurcation, which can disturb the nonlinearly self-sustained mechanism of detonations and finally lead to cell bifurcations.

On the validity of the Boltzmann–BGK model through relaxation evaluation

The Boltzmann-Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook（BGK）model is investigated for its validity regarding the collision term approximation through relaxation evaluation. The evaluation is based on theoretical analysis and numerical comparison between the BGK and direct simulation Monte Carlo（DSMC） results for three specifically designed relaxation problems. In these problems, one or half component of the velocity distribution is characterized by another Maxwellian distribution with a different temperature. It is analyzed that the relaxation time in the BGK model is unequal to the molecular mean collision time. Relaxation of component distribution fails to involve enough contribution from other component distributions, which makes the BGK model unable to capture details of velocity distribution, especially when discontinuity exists in distribution. The BGK model,however, predicts satisfactory results including fluxes during relaxation when the temperature difference is small. Particularly, the model-induced error in the BGK model increases with the temperature difference, thus the model is more reliable for low-speed rarefied flows than for hypersonic flows.

Calculation of Hugoniot properties for shocked nitromethane based on the improved Tsien's EOS

We have calculated the Hugoniot properties of shocked nitromethane based on the improved Tsien＇s equa- tion of state （EOS） that optimized by ＂exact＂ numerical molecular dynamic data at high temperatures and pressures. Comparison of the calculated results of the improved Tsien＇s EOS with the existed experimental data and the direct simu- lations show that the behavior of the improved Tsien＇s EOS is very good in many aspects. Because of its simple analytical form, the improved Tsien＇s EOS can be prospectively used to study the condensed explosive detonation coupling with chemical reaction.

An analytical theory of heated duct flows in supersonic combustors

One-dimensional analytical theory is developed for supersonic duct flow with variation of cross section, wall friction, heat addition, and relations between the inlet and outlet flow parameters are obtained. By introducing a self- similar parameter, effects of heat releasing, wall friction, and change in cross section area on the flow can be normalized and a self-similar solution of the flow equations can be found. Based on the result of self-similar solution, the sufficient and necessary condition for the occurrence of thermal choking is derived. A re- lation of the maximum heat addition leading to thermal choking of the duct flow is derived as functions of area ratio, wall friction, and mass addition, which is an extension of the classic Rayleigh flow theory, where the effects of wall friction and mass addition are not considered. The present work is expected to provide fundamentals for developing an integral analytical theory for ramjets and scramjets.

Nonlinear saturation amplitude of cylindrical Rayleigh Taylor instability

The nonlinear saturation amplitude （NSA） of the fundamental mode in the classical Rayleigh-Taylor instability with a cylindrical geometry for an arbitrary Atwood number is analytically investigated by considering the nonlinear corrections up to the third order. The analytic results indicate that the effects of the initial radius of the interface （r0） and the Atwood number （A） play an important role in the NSA of the fundamental mode. The NSA of the fundamental mode first increases gently and then decreases quickly with increasing A. For a given A, the smaller the ro/λ（λ is the perturbation wavelength）, the larger the NSA of the fundamental mode. When ro/λ is large enough （r0 〉〉 λ）, the NSA of the fundamental mode is reduced to the prediction in the previous literatures within the framework of the third-order perturbation theory.

Shock oscillation in highly underexpanded jets

The oscillatory motions of shocks in highly underexpanded jets with nozzle pressure ratios of 5.60, 7.47, 9.34, and11.21 are quantitatively studied by using large eddy simulation. Two types of shock oscillations are observed： one is the Mach disk oscillation in the streamwise direction and the other is the shock oscillation in the radial direction. It is found that the Mach disk moves quickly in the middle of the oscillatory region but slowly at the top or bottom boundaries. The oscillation cycles of Mach disk are the same for different cases, and are all dominated by an axisymmetric mode of 5.298 k Hz. For the oscillation in the radial direction, the shocks oscillate more toward the jet centerline but less in the jet shear layer, and the oscillation magnitude is an increasing function of screech amplitude. The cycles of the radial shock oscillation switch randomly between the two screech frequencies for the first two cases. However, the oscillation periodicity is more complex for the jets with high nozzle pressure ratios of 9.34 and 11.21 than for the jets with the low nozzle pressure ratios of 5.6 and 7.47. In addition, the shock oscillation characteristics are also captured by coarse mesh and Smagorinsky model,but the coarse mesh tends to predict a slower and weaker shock oscillation.