Chemical Reactions and Thermal Nonequilibrium on Silica Surfaces

Abstract

In the past many efforts have been made to understand the physics of the gasphase of re-entry flows in chemical and thermal nonequilibrium but much less is known about catalytic effects and thermal nonequilibrium at solid surfaces although important progresses have been achieved [10, 12, 13]. Up to now thermal equilibrium or adiabatic surface assumptions have served as boundary conditions for the vibrational and electron energy equations within multiple temperature Navier Stokes simulations. However, it seems that no justification for these assumptions has been given in literature. Another crucial point of surface modeling is that particle fluxes which are calculated with the well-known effusion relation become the more inaccurate the more the catalytic efficiency of a surface rises [5]. As these particle fluxes are needed within catalysis models, significant errors may be introduced in the calculation of reaction rates and surface heat fluxes.