Computation of chemical nonequilibrium nozzle flow of air in high-enthalpy shock tunnels

A high enthalpy flow can be produced by using a shock tunnel such as the Stalker tube. Because of the high enthalpy, the gas is as well as ionized dissociated. Although the flow is assumed equilibrium at the stagnation condition, in a convergent-divergent nozzle it is usually chemically nonequilibrium because the chemical reaction rate is slower than the characteristics time of the flow. In the present paper a chemical nonequilibrium nozzle flow in high enthalpy shock tunnels is discussed. The distributions of temperature, pressure, velocity and mass fractions are presented.