Recent Advances in Nonequilibrium Dissociating Gasdynamics

T PURPOSE of this paper is to review some recent advances in the study of gasdynamic problems including effects of chemical reactions. To provide a background for the study the general concepts shall be outlined briefly. The discussions of the recent developments are restricted to inviscid flow problems only, neglecting viscosity, heat conduction and diffusion. Particular attention is directed to recent advances in analyses of nonequilibrium dissociating gas flows. In the hypersonic flight regime, high stagnation enthalpies sufficient to cause dissociation are realized. When the time to reach equilibrium is comparable with the time it takes for a fluid particle to pass through the flow, then there exist regions of the flow field where nonequilibrium states are encountered. A brief survey of both the linear and the nonlinear methods of treatment of these nonequilibrium flows, including some new developments that have not appeared elsewhere, will be presented.