Multitemperature kinetic model for heat transfer in reacting gas mixture flows

Heat transfer in a high temperature reacting gas flow is investigated takin g into account the influence of strong vibrational and chemical nonequilibr ium. Rapid and slow vibrational energy exchanges in a mixture of molecular gases with realistic molecular spectra are taken into account and the devia tion from the Boltzmann distribution over vibrational levels is studied. A kinetic theory approach is developed for the modeling of transport properti es of a reacting mixture of polyatomic gases and a generalized multitempera ture model is given. This theoretical model is applied for the analysis of the heat transfer and diffusion behind a strong shock wave propagating in a ir. The heat conductivity, diffusion coefficients, and heat flux are calcul ated on the basis of this model and compared to the one-temperature approac h. The influence of anharmonicity of molecular vibrations is evaluated. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S1070-6631(99)00807-7].