Characterization of a nitrogen flow within a plasma wind tunnel

This article presents a comparison of numerical and measured results of a nitrogen high-enthalpy flow. Experimental data at a first cross section are used as initial and boundary conditions for a numerical simulation of the high-enthalpy flow, the results at a second cross section are compared with the numerical solution. The program system employed to examine the flow consists of a Navier-Stokes flowfield solver including models to investigate thermal and chemical nonequilibrium flows. Different measurement techniques were applied to determine the flowfield properties. The measurements made possible the calculation of the local specific enthalpy and mass flux distributions of the plasma plume by basic thermodynamic equations. These mass flux distributions are compared with measurements by mass spectrometry. Special emphasis is also placed on the investigation of the catalytic activity of different materials.