Ionizing shocks in argon. Part II: Transient and multi-dimensional effects

Abstract

We extend the computations of ionizing shocks in argon to the unsteady and multi-dimensional, using a collisional-radiative model and a single-fluid, two-temperature formulation of the conservation equations. It is shown that the fluctuations of the shock structure observed in shock-tube experiments can be reproduced by the numerical simulations and explained on the basis of the coupling of the nonlinear kinetics of the collisional-radiative model with wave propagation within the induction zone. The mechanism is analogous to instabilities of detonation waves and also produces a cellular structure commonly observed in gaseous detonations. We suggest that detailed simulations of such unsteady phenomena can yield further information for the validation of nonequilibrium kinetics.