NUMERICAL SOLUTIONS OF REFLECTED SHOCK-WAVE FLOWFIELDS WITH NONEQUILIBRIUM CHEMICAL REACTIONS

The method of characteristics for a reacting gas is employed to construct the time-dependent, one-dimensional flowfield resulting from the normal reflection of an incident shock wave at the end wall of a shock tube. Nonequilibrium chemical reactions are allowed behind both the incident and reflected shock waves. All of the solutions are evaluated for oxygen, but the general features of the results are representative of any inviscid, nonconducting, and nonradiating diatomic gas. The solutions clearly show that 1) both the incident- and reflected- shock chemical-relaxation times are important in governing the time to attain steadystate thermodynamic properties; and that 2) adjacent to the end wall, a variable-entropy layer develops wherein the steady-state values of all of the thermodynamic variables, except pressure, differ significantly from their corresponding Rankine-Hugoniot equilibrium values. © 1969 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc., All rights reserved.