A study of radiating argon flows at high opacities

Date

1972

Authors

Logan, Peter Frederick

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Abstract

The aim of this project was to investigate the effect of radiation loss on the various flows associated with a free piston reflected shock tunnel assembly. Experiments have been performed using argon as a test gas because the radiation loss with argon is quite considerable under the thermodynamic conditions experienced in this study. The nature of the experiments was mainly spectroscopic. This investigation has shown that?using a careful analysis^the behaviour of a high performance shock tunnel?which experiences substantial radiation losses.can be explained during the first one hundred microseconds of test section flow. An appropriate model is developed to account for the emitted and absorbed radiation from the test gas, both behind the incident shock and the reflected shock, during this period. At later times a quantitative description could not be obtained since interaction between the reflected shock and the boundary layer introduced contamination into the reflected shock region. From the theoretical analysis of the radiative behaviour of the gas flows associated with free piston reflected shock tunnels, a limiting value for their operation can be obtained. A further study proceeded from this investigation. The gas in the stationary slug at the end of the shock tube is optically opaque towards all visible and near visible radiation. Whereas the gas at the exit of the nozzle is optically thin. Hence the radiation field observed looking up the centre of the nozzle is similar to that of a stellar atmosphere?and a Fraunhofer type spectrum was observed. A preliminary investigation of both the mechanism by which the spectral lines are formed#and their application^is reported.

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Thesis (PhD)

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