ABSTRACT
Numerical simulations are presented of steady-state, hypersonic flows for the prediction of multi-translational and rotational temperatures, and vibrational energy distributions, in order to understand the thermodynamic nonequilibrium phenomena encountered along the trajectory of the hypersonic fiowfields of aerospace vehicles. A new gas kinetic, multi-translational temperature model for a monoatomic gas was developed by solving equations derived from the Boltzmann equation with a first-order Chapman-Enskog expansion of an anisotropic velocity distribution function. The nonequilibrium vibrational energy distributions were modeled by the master equation and the population distributions in the quantum energy states of the di-atomic molecule evaluated under multiple-quantum vibrational-translational energy exchanges.