On the Frozen Flow of a Dissociated Gas

Abstract

\ 7 " E R Y LITTLE is known about the extent of departures from * thermodynamic equilibrium in many hot-gas flow problems. In an investigation of such a flow, it is desirable to know the possible range of values of flow variables that might be encountered. A calculation of a completely frozen flow is useful for this purpose. This note demonstrates that the usual equations for a constant specific-heat ratio are valid for a completely frozen gas, provided an appropriate effective specific heat ratio is used. The frozen gas considered here is one in which only the rotational and translational portions of the molecular energy are allowed to change during the flow process. All other gas energy components, such as vibration, dissociation and ionization, remain constant. Furthermore, the composition of the gas re-