Winter Term 2012 AERO 532: MOLECULAR GAS DYNAMICS MID-TERM EXAM Open notes, open book, no laptops:

answer all questions. Points for each question are given in []. 1. A Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) from the Sun creates a flux of hydrogen ions with a velocity of 500 km/s, a number density of 160 cm-3, and a temperature of 300,000 K (!) that is incident on the solar panel of a geosynchronous satellite. The solar panel has an area of 4 m2, is oriented at an angle of 45 deg. to the flow, has a surface temperature of 200 K, and an accommodation coefficient of 0.80. Assume a hard -10 sphere diameter of 3x10 m and a molecular weight of 1 kg /kg-mol for the ions. Neglecting any other ambient effects: (a) Calculate the mass flux onto the panel. (b) Calculate the net pressure force exerted on the panel and comment on the result. (c) Justify the approach you have taken to answer this question. Note: it may be assumed that erf(x)=1 for x>3. 2. The equilibrium distribution function of rotational energy !r for a polyatomic molecule is proportional to [35]

!r exp(!!r / kT ) d!r
(a) determine the normalized distribution; (b) develop expressions for the most probable and the average rotational energies for CO2 molecules in equilibrium. Hint: you may need to use the gamma function, noting that "(1/2)=!# and "(x+1)=x "(x) where
#

! ( x) = $ t x" 1 exp( "t ) dt

0

[35]

3. (a) Consider the following one-dimensional wave function for x in [1,2]: $ = x exp(-i [3kx - 2%t ] ) where k is the wave number and % is the angular frequency. Determine the normalized wave function, the average position, and the average momentum. (b) Write down all information indicated for these electronic states: (i) Ca+: 4 2D (ii) O2+: a 4& u [30]