Abstract A numerical assessment of both oxygen and nitrogen catalytic recombination efficiency on copper oxide surface is conducted using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis. The numerical catalytic determination is performed based on the stagnation heat transfer measurement that is conducted in a shock tube facility. A two-temperature thermochemical nonequilibrium model with a partial catalytic wall boundary condition is applied in the numerical analysis. The partial catalytic wall boundary condition is modeled by considering the wall mass flux, which is due to the diffusion and surface catalytic recombination. Through the CFD analysis, the obtained heat transfer is compared to the heat transfer that is calculated from the literature using the Goulard heat transfer theory. The atomic recombination efficiency is estimated by comparing the calculated stagnation heat transfer with the one that is measured from the experiment. The computed recombination efficiency values for both the oxygen and the nitrogen atoms are later compared with the available literature data for the recombination efficiency. It is shown that the determination of surface catalytic efficiency from the heat transfer measurement in the shock tube through the Goulard heat transfer theory has some limitations. The numerical catalytic determination through a CFD analysis with the thermochemical nonequilibrium model should be considered in order to obtain a more reliable efficiency value.
Highlights Numerical catalytic determination using CFD analysis is conducted based on the shock tube experiment. The conductive heat transfer decreases as the efficiency increases due to the variation in the thermal conductivity. A more reliable catalytic estimation is obtained based on the thermochemical nonequilibrium model in the CFD analysis. The efficiency for oxygen and nitrogen atoms is found to be 0.0045 and 0.003, respectively.
Determination of surface catalysis on copper oxide in a shock tube using thermochemical nonequilibrium CFD analysis
Acta Astronautica ; 193 ; 75-89
2021-12-23
15 pages
Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch