Arcjet Flow Research Articles

Ablation of Carbonaceous Materials in a Hydrogen-Helium Arcjet Flow

The stagnation-point ablation rates of a graphite, a carbon-carbon composite, and four carbon-phenolic materials are measured in an arc-jet wind tunnel with a 50% hydrogen-50% helium mixture as the test gas. Flow environments are determined through measurements of static and impact pressures, heat-transfer rates to a calorimeter, and radiation spectra, and through numerical calculation of the flow through the wind tunnel, spectra, and heat-transfer rates. The environments so determined are: impact pressure approx. 3 atm, Mach number approx. 2.1, convective heat-transfer rate approx. 14 kw/sq cm, and radiative heat-transfer rate approx. 7 kw/sq cm in the absence of ablation. Ablation rates are determined from the measured rates of mass loss and recession of the ablation specimens. Compared with the predicted ablation rates obtained by running RASLE and CMA codes, the measured rates are higher by about 15% for all tested materials.

Characterization of a hybrid plasma and its application to a chemical synthesis

A numerical model has been developed for predicting the two-dimensional flow and temperature fields in a hybrid plasma which is characterized by the superposition of an rf plasma and an arc jet. Calculations have been made for the confirmation of a prominent feature of the hybrid plasma. As might be expected, the derived results suggested that the hybrid plasma has a possibility to offer higher efficiencies for practical processing than other conventional plasmas. Particularly noteworthy is the disappearance of a recirculation eddy found in a usual rf plasma, by the presence of the high velocity and high-temperature channel caused by an arc jet flow. Moreover, the relative insensitive character of the exit gas enthalpy to the rf input power was found. Based on the theoretical investigations, a reactor was designed to confirm the effectiveness of the hybrid plasma for chemical syntheses. Using the reactor, ultrafine amorphous Si3N4 with the nitrogen content of 37±0.5 wt. % and the size of 10–30 nm, which can meet the purity and size requirements of an ideal Si3N4 powder, could be prepared successfully by a reaction of SiCl4 and NH3. These theoretical and experimental investigations confirmed that the hybrid plasma torch is an effective reactor for the preparation of ultrafine refractory compounds by plasma chemical vapor deposition (CVD) processes.

Reacting Shock Layers with Slip and Catalytic Boundary Conditions

The influence of wall slip and catalytic atom-recombination on the flowfield and wall heat flux are calculated for high-altitude flight and arcjet-flow conditions. Boundary equations, which include velocity slip, temperature jump, and wall catalytic atom-recombination, are coupled to the viscous reacting multicomponent NavierStokes equation. These equations are solved using a time-dependent finite difference technique applied to spheres in an arcjet flow (Reynolds number of 550) and a high-altitude flight case representative of the space shuttle orbiter (Reynolds number of 450). The results indicate that catalysis strongly influences the temperature jump, but not the velocity slip. Slip increases the atom fraction and temperature at both the wall and in the flowfield. Likewise, the shock stand-off distance, the wall heat flux, and friction coefficient are increased over the nonslip cases. The reacting gas calculations confirm the chemically frozen nature of the shock layer in arcjet flows. design the reusable space shuttle orbiter for highaltitude, low Reynolds number, atmospheric entry necessitates a more comprehensive treatment and understanding of the interaction between a high enthalpy gas flow and a relatively cold surface. At low densities the continuum model of the gas breaks down in regions of large gradients such as those near a cold body. Corrections to the equations for the boundary conditions are then required for the flow. These influences are reflected in the calculations of surface heat-transfer rate and chemical composition of the flow near the wall. The aim of this paper is to quantify how these low density phenomena interact, how they influence interpretation of test data obtained on thermal protection systems, and how they alter the predictions of heating rates and performance of the space shuttle orbiter thermal protection system (TPS) during its long high-altitude entry. The approach taken here is to obtain finite difference solutions to the reacting Navier-Stokes equations for the flow around spheres in both space shuttle flight and arcjet environments. The wall boundary conditions for these solutions are obtained from slip and jump relations for a nonequilibrium multicomponent gas mixture. They include the effects of catalytic atom recombination. From the solutions one can assess the effects. of the boundary conditions on the flow properties, the heat flux, etc. At low densities, the continuum-flow equations are no longer adequate close to the wall because the mean free path becomes long compared to characteristi c lengths associated with significant changes in macroscopic-flow parameters. The flow in a region next to the wall having a thickness on the order of a mean free path (the Knudsen layer) cannot be described by the Navier-Stokes description (Kogan1). To determine the flow properties within the Knudsen layer requires the direct solution of the Boltzmann equation matched to the solutions for the outer flow (Navier-Stokes equation) and the wall boundary condition. This is most conveniently done through the use of a slip model in which slip and jump properties are used for the boundary conditions for the Navier-Stokes equations.