The influence of CO2 Kinetics on the Hypersonic Flow near Blunt Bodies

In this paper, the influence of non-equilibrium CO2 kinetics on gas dynamic parameters and transport properties in a viscous shock layer near blunt bodies is studied. This problem is important for accurate prediction of macroscopic parameters and heat transfer near a space vehicle re-entering the Mars atmosphere. The hypersonic flow of reacting CO2/CO/O-2/C/O mixture is studied numerically using the accurate kinetic theory models for transport properties and chemical reaction rates proposed in our previous papers on the basis of three-temperature vibrational distributions. The kinetic theory algorithms were implemented directly to the computational fluid dynamics solvers. The transport properties and gas dynamic parameters in 2-D viscous shock layer near blunt bodies of different shape are studied for various test cases under Mars re-entry conditions. The influence of non-equilibrium effects on gas flow parameters and heat transfer is discussed; a quite different structure of a shock layer is found for various body shapes. The comparison with the results obtained using more simple models for CO2 kinetics, transport coefficients, and reaction rates is shown.