Studying the Streamlining of a Blunted Body by a Vibrational-nonequilibrium Dissociated Gas

It is usual in the study of the streamlining of bodies by a nonequilibrium flow of dissociated air to assume equilibrium in the translational, rotational, and vibrational degrees of freedom. However, this approximation does not offer the required accuracy, for example, in examining the fast-acting processes that arise in compression shocks. To describe the structure of the flow in this region it thus becomes necessary to make provision for nonequilibrium vibrational relaxation.