Role of the absorption of radiation ahead of a shock wave with hypersonic flow around a blunt body

Abstract

A study was made of conditions at the front of a strong shock wave taking account of the absorption of leading radiation. Emphasis is laid on the role of the dimensionless parameters which arise under these circumstances, and an evaluation is made of the values of these parameters for a number of practically important cases involving the entry of blunt bodies into dense layers of the Earth's atmosphere. Calculations are carried out to determine the composition and the parameters of the flow of molecular nitrogen entering into the shock wave, and conclusions are drawn with respect to the general problem of hypersonic flow around a blunt body, taking radiation into account. In an investigation of the flow of a hypersonic stream of air around a blunt body, taking account of radiation, it is necessary to have some idea of how the radiation leaving the zone of the shock wave reacts with the oncoming flow of cold air. The importance of taking this reaction into account is indicated by the results of observation of the reentry of spacecraft into dense layers of the atmosphere [1], and by existing experimental data on strong shock waves [2]. This reaction is bound up with the fact that the absorption of intense short-wave radiation from the shock wave in cold air leads to photodissociation and photoionization of the molecules of air, i.e., to an actual increase in the enthalpy of the air. Some of the general questions of the structure of a very strong direct shock wave, taking account of the absorption of radiation “leading” the wave front, have been investigated in [3],