Nonequilibrium vibrational kinetics of an O2/O mixture hitting a catalytic surface

The importance of a silica surface in affecting both the state-to state kinetics and the macroscopic properties of an O(2)/O mixture hitting a blunt body at hypersonic speed has been investigated. First, the surface has been considered catalytic only for recombination: three different assumptions are examined and compared with the results from a noncatalytic surface model. Second, both deactivation and dissociation are treated in the framework of a catalytic surface.