Catalytic wall effects on the propagation of electromagnetic waves in thermochemical non-equilibrium dusty plasma sheath of the hypersonic aircraft

The blackout problem caused by the plasma sheath is a critical issue that threatens the safety of spacecraft during its reentry process. Charged particles, such as dust particles and ionized gases within the plasma sheath, have noticeable effects on the propagation of electromagnetic (EM) waves. In this study, a numerical framework which considering the propagation of EM waves in the thermochemical non-equilibrium dusty plasma sheath is developed. The hypersonic thermochemical non-equilibrium flow is simulated based on Park's two-temperature model, the fully lower-upper symmetric Gauss–Seidel method, and the advection upstream splitting method by pressure-based weight functions. The propagation of EM waves is analyzed using the equivalent wave impedance method. The accuracy and effectiveness of the numerical scheme are verified, and the electron distribution is simulated under varying wall catalytic coefficients. Furthermore, the transmittance and absorptance of EM waves propagating through dusty and non-dusty plasma sheaths are analyzed. Our results indicate that electron density decreases significantly as the wall catalytic coefficient increases. A higher wall catalytic coefficient not only mitigates the blackout effect and improves aircraft detectability but also shifts the frequency where the absorptance peak occurs. As the density of dust particles increases, the blackout effect intensifies. However, it has little impact on the frequency of the peak absorptance. The ion recombination has more pronounced effects on electron distribution than atomic recombination. The atomic recombination reactions are the primary contributors to the increase in heat flux, while the ion recombination reactions have a negligible effect on the heat flux.