Vibrational Relaxation of Oxygen by O2–O Collision

Abstract

The vibrational relaxation of oxygen by O2–O collision is studied using physical kinetics and molecular collision dynamics in the temperature range from 2,000 K to 7,000 K. This study shows that all the potential energy surfaces appearing in the collision must be taken into account to correctly calculate the rate constant, and that the Bethe-Teller theory is inadequate to describe vibrational relaxation in a strong non-equilibrium state. This study also validates existing experimental models widely used to describe vibrational relaxation.