A shock tube investigation of heat transfer from dissociated hydrogen to catalytic surfaces

Abstract

Shock tube experiments are described which compare the heat transfer rate to flat plate nickel and silicon dioxide surfaces from dissociated hydrogen/argon mixtures at temperatures from 2000 to 6000 K. The experimental conditions were chosen in order to permit the effects of surface recombination of hydrogen atoms on the heat-transfer rate to be explored. Comparisons of the experiments with theoretical predictions based on existing laminar boundary layer methods are presented. The results may be interpreted to yield an experimental value tor the catalytic efficiency (γ') of silicon dioxide surfaces to hydrogen atom recombination of 25 × 10 −4.