NITROGEN NONEQUILIBRIUM VIBRATIONAL DISTRIBUTIONS AND NON-ARRHENIUS DISSOCIATION-CONSTANTS IN HYPERSONIC BOUNDARY-LAYERS

A ladder-climbing model including V-V (vibration-vibration) and V-T (v ibration-translation) energy exchange processes linked to state-to-sta te dissociation-recombination kinetics has been developed and inserted in the fluid dynamics equations, describing the boundary layer surrou nding a noncatalytic surface hit by a hypersonic flow of atomic and vi brationally excited molecular nitrogen. The results show a strong over population of vibrational levels with respect to Boltzmann distributio ns along the coordinate perpendicular to the surface and the correspon ding non-Arrhenius behavior of dissociation constants.