Fundamental Problems in High Altitude Aerodynamics.

摘要

Four major lines of research have been followed. Early in the period a significant effort was expended on measuring molecular velocity distribution functions in shock waves. Very significant results were obtained leading to a quantitative comparison of various computation methods and experiment. Another research effort was in measuring the rotational transitions excited in nitrogen - rare gas collisions. A third research effort, which continues through to the present, is the study of the interactions between an underexpanded gas plume and a background gas. A fairly comprehensive understanding of the rarefaction of the interaction of exhaust plumes with their environment has resulted from this work. A fourth research direction is the continuing study of the electron beam flourescence technique. Also, the extension of the technique to measure detailed properties of high vibrational temperature, low rotational temperature flows is described in more detail in the main body of this final report.