Equilibrium spectral radiation behind the shock wave front in a CO2-N2 gas mixture

Abstract

This paper presents calculations of the equilibrium spectral radiation behind shock waves in a CO2-N2 gas mixture, corresponding to the conditions implemented in experiments with NASA Ames Research Center and JAXA Chofu Space Center shock tubes. The studied experimental parameters were selected so that the results obtained for these systems can be cross-validated. The presented data for equilibrium spectral radiation were obtained using two methods for calculating the equilibrium populations of the excited electronic states, based on a hybrid radiative-collisional model (in fact, a model of nonequilibrium radiation) and on the use of the Boltzmann distribution with the calculated equilibrium temperature. The spectral composition of the radiation was also analyzed; a comparison of the calculated and experimental data demonstrated reasonable agreement between them.