• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
• /
• v.18 no.1
• /
• pp.28-37
• /
• 2017

Recent modeling of thermal nonequilibrium processes in simple molecules like hydrogen and nitrogen has indicated that rotational nonequilibrium becomes as important as vibrational nonequilibrium at high temperatures. In the present work, in order to analyze rovibrational nonequilibrium, the rotational mode is separated from the translational-rotational mode that is usually considered as an equilibrium mode in two- and multi-temperature models. Then, the translational, rotational, and electron-electronic-vibrational modes are considered separately in describing the thermochemical nonequilibrium of nitrogen behind a strong normal shock wave. The energy transfer for each energy mode is described by recently evaluated relaxation time parameters including the rotational-to-vibrational energy transfer. One-dimensional post-normal shock flow equations are constructed with these thermochemical models, and post-normal shock flow calculations are performed for the conditions of existing shock-tube experiments. In comparisons with the experimental measurements, it is shown that the present thermochemical model is able to describe the rotational and electron-electronic-vibrational relaxation processes of nitrogen behind a strong shock wave.