JOURNAL OF THERMOPHYSICS AND HEAT TRANSFER

Computational and Experimental Study of Nonequilibrium

Flow in Plasma Wind Tunnel

Vinay Unnikrishnan∗
Indian Space Research Organisation, Thiruvananthapuram 695 022, India
Nandini Yadava†
Nirma University, Ahmedabad 382 481, India
Niral Virani‡ and Joydeep Ghosh§
Institute for Plasma Research, Gandhinagar 382 428, India
N. Sreenivas¶ and L. Aravindakshan Pillai**
Indian Space Research Organisation, Thiruvananthapuram 695 022, India
and
Kowsik Bodi††
Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS on February 22, 2023 | http://arc.aiaa.org | DOI: 10.2514/1.T6357

Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai 400 076, India

https://doi.org/10.2514/1.T6357
The present work examines the thermochemical nonequilibrium flow in the freestream and shock layer of the
Plasma Wind Tunnel Facility using experiments and computations. Computational studies were performed using the
open-source solver hy2Foam, which was validated using the NASA Interaction Heating Facility case. Two chemical
reaction models were used to compute the nonequilibrium state of air, composed of six species (N2 , O2 , NO, N, O, Ar).
Optical emission spectroscopy was employed to experimentally capture the N2 first positive system emission from
the freestream and molecular CN vibration bands emissions in the shock region. The Boltzmann plot method was
employed to estimate the vibrational temperatures from the measured spectra. The measured vibrational
temperatures in the freestream for two different transitions of N2 agree with one another, which shows that the
vibrational modes obey the Boltzmann distribution for the conditions considered in this study. The vibrational
temperatures computed using hy2Foam in the nozzle freestream and the shock layer for the Plasma Wind Tunnel
conditions agree with the values obtained from optical emission spectroscopy.

0
νs;r = forward stoichiometric coefficients of species s in
Nomenclature
Ds = diffusion coefficient of species, m2 ∕s reaction r
00
D0 = dissociation potential of species, J∕kg νs;r = backward stoichiometric coefficients of species s in
Keq = equilibrium constant reaction r
τ = vibrational relaxation time, s
Ms = molecular weight, kg∕mol
R = specific gas constant, J∕kg ⋅ K
Tc = controlling temperature, K Subscripts
Tr = rotational temperature, K C-V = chemical-vibrational
Tt = translational temperature, K m = molecule
Ttr = trans-rotational temperature, K s = species
Tv = vibrational temperature, K tr = trans-rotational
Ys = species mass fraction v = vibrational
θv = characteristic vibrational temperature, K V-T = vibrational-translation
κ = thermal conductivity, W∕m ⋅ K

I. Introduction
Received 20 April 2021; revision received 10 November 2022; accepted for
publication 27 December 2022; published online 6 February 2023. Copyright
© 2023 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. All
P LASMA Wind Tunnel (PWT) Facility of Indian Space Research
Organization (ISRO) is an arc-heated wind tunnel established
for ground-based simulation of high-enthalpy aerothermal environ-
rights reserved. All requests for copying and permission to reprint should be ments encountered during a space vehicle reentry. This facility is meant
submitted to CCC at www.copyright.com; employ the eISSN 1533-6808 to
to test and qualify thermal protection system (TPS) materials that shield
initiate your request. See also AIAA Rights and Permissions www.
aiaa.org/randp.
space vehicles from extreme reentry aerothermal environments. In arc-
*Engineer, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Kerala; v_vinayukp@vssc. heated wind tunnels, gases are heated to high temperatures using an
gov.in. electric arc to generate test gas with specific enthalpies in the range of
† 10–40 MJ∕kg at 1–10 bar stagnation pressures. The high-temperature
Research Scholar, Institute of Science, Gujarat; nandini7754@gmail.com.
‡
Project Scientist, Institute for Plasma Research, Bhat, Gujarat; niralpatel. test gas is then expanded through a convergent–divergent (C-D) nozzle
87@gmail.com. into an evacuated test section to create a high-velocity free jet, to which
§
Professor, Institute for Plasma Research, Bhat, Gujarat; also Associate models of TPS materials are exposed. The required heating conditions
Professor, Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai 400 085, India; jghosh@ are simulated by tailoring the test model’s geometry, arc heater stagna-
ipr.res.in. tion enthalpy, and the nozzle expansion ratio. The schematic of an arc-
¶
Group Head, Propulsion and Plasma Research Group, Vikram Sarabhai
Space Centre, Kerala; n_sreenivas@vssc.gov.in. heated wind tunnel is shown in Fig. 1.
**Group Director, Propulsion Group, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Inside the arc-heater constrictor, where an arc heats the gas, gases
Kerala; l_aravindakshan@vssc.gov.in. undergo dissociation and partial ionization due to the extremely
†† high temperatures. Because the pressures in the constrictor region
Associate Professor, Department of Aerospace Engineering, Maharashtra;
kbodi@aero.iitb.ac.in. Member AIAA. inside the arc heaters are high and the flow velocities low, the
Article in Advance / 1
 2 Article in Advance
Fig. 1 Schematic of an arc-heated wind tunnel.
flow can be assumed to be in thermochemical equilibrium [1,2].
However, during the expansion of these high-temperature gases
through a C-D nozzle, the flow has lower convection timescales
and fails to sustain local thermochemical equilibrium [3,4]. Con-
sequently, the flow impinging on the test section model has a
Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS on February 22, 2023 | http://arc.aiaa.org | DOI: 10.2514/1.T6357
significant difference between the translational and vibrational
temperatures (thermal nonequilibrium), unlike the freestream con-
ditions in the actual atmospheric reentry. When such a flow en-
counters the test model, the shock stand-off distance, postshock
temperature, and species composition in the shock layer can be
affected by the degree of nonequilibrium in the impinging flow [3].
Because the nonequilibrium effects in an arc-heated wind tunnel are
significant and generally unavoidable, computational and experi-
mental studies are needed to understand the conditions in the tunnel
nozzle and test section.
Computational codes for simulating hypersonic nonequilibrium
flows were developed and reported since the late 1980s. Some of
the notable codes are the DPLR code developed at the NASA AMES
Research Centre [5], LAURA developed at the NASA Langley
Research Centre [6], LeMANS developed at the University of
Michigan [7], US3D developed at the University of Minnesota
[8], and TAU developed at DLR [9]. Of late, a few open-source
counterparts have been reported, namely, Eilmer developed at the
University of Queensland [10], COOLFluiD developed at the Von
Karman Institute [11], and hy2Foam developed at the University of
Strathclyde [12,13].
The present work aims to characterize the nonequilibrium in
PWT Facility through computational and experimental studies. For
the computational part of the work, we chose hy2Foam, which is an
open-source two-temperature solver for hypersonic flows [12,13].
The solver has been built over OpenFOAM [14], which is a widely
used open source computational fluid dynamics (CFD) platform in
industry and academia. The potential of solver extension for a
combined fluid flow (with hy2Foam) and thermal response studies
(coupled with codes like PATO [15]) makes validation of hy2Foam
for hypersonic flows significant. Note that hy2Foam has been tested
for several zero-dimensional and multidimensional cases and for
reacting flow over a blunt body. However, the solver has not been
tested for C-D nozzle flows like those observed in high-enthalpy test
facilities. First, the hy2Foam solver is benchmarked for an expand-
ing flow case of NASA Interaction Heating Facility (IHF) arc-heated
tunnel’s nozzle [16]. Studies are performed with two different reac-
tion rate models for the expanding nozzle flow simulation and its
effect on the estimated nonequilibrium in the freestream is compa-
red. The experimental part of the work focuses on employing optical
emission spectroscopy (OES) technique to estimate vibrational tem-
peratures in the freestream and the shock region in PWT. Though
OES is a widely employed technique for measuring flow properties in
arc-heated tunnels, significant differences are noted in the presented
results [17–21]. Cipullo et al. [21] have reported spectroscopic
studies of the SCIROCCO facility and found that the measured
rotational and vibrational temperatures of NO in the freestream agree
with those predicted by the Specair [22] and LIFBASE [23] for a
Boltzmann distribution. However, the spectroscopic studies of
Winter et al. [19] in the IHF arc-heater freestream found that the
observed vibrational energy spectrum of N2 does not agree with that
predicted by NEQAIR [24] for a Boltzmann distribution. Park and
/ UNNIKRISHNAN ET AL.
Lee [25] reported that the different species might have different
vibrational temperatures in the nozzle freestream. Whether the depar-
ture from equilibrium extends to the distribution of vibrational energy
within a species (and deviation from Boltzmann distribution) is not
fully understood.
OES measurements conducted in PWT could successfully capture
N2 first positive system in the freestream and molecular CN band in
the shock region for a carbon-based ablative model. The Boltzmann
plot method was employed to estimate the vibrational temperatures
from the measured spectra. The measured vibrational temperatures in
the freestream and the shock layer for the PWT conditions were
compared with the computed values using hy2Foam. The computa-
tional model is described in Sec. II. We compare the reaction models
of Park and Gupta in Sec. III as a part of the benchmarking exercise.
Section IV outlines the OES measurement system and the results of
the measurements.
II. Computational Model
A. CFD Solver hy2Foam
Note that hy2Foam is built on the basic OpenFOAM solver
rhoCentralFoam [26] by incorporating reacting flow libraries and
thermal nonequilibrium effects. Central differencing is used to dis-
cretize the viscous fluxes, whereas the convective fluxes are discretized
using the central-upwind scheme proposed by Kurganov et al. [27].
This scheme does not require characteristic decomposition, making it
computationally inexpensive. The scheme is second-order accurate in
space and reported to give results comparable to other widely used
schemes [26]. However, the scheme is diffusive, requiring refined
meshes in the direction of gradients. The code is parallelized with
Open MPI and utilizes the domain decomposition techniques available
in OpenFOAM, making it suitable to run in large clusters.
The flow is considered to be laminar; the fluid is a gaseous mixture
of six species, namely, N2 , O2 , N, O, NO, and Ar. The two-
temperature implementation in the solver assumes equilibration of
all species’ translation and rotational energies, using a single trans-
rotational temperature T tr to describe this energy pool. Similarly, a
single vibrational temperature T v is used to describe all species’
vibrational energies. The energy exchange between trans-rotational
and vibrational mode is computed using the Landau–Teller model
[28], and the vibrational relaxation time is estimated using the
Millikan–White curve fits [29] with Park’s high-temperature correc-
tion [30]. Chemical reaction rates for dissociation and recombination
are supplied in Arrhenius form, and the coupling between chemistry
and vibrational energy is handled using Park’s two-temperature
formulation [30].
B. Governing Equations
The medium is considered to have N s species, among which there
are N m molecules. The governing equations describing the thermo-
chemical nonequilibrium flows are the Navier–Stokes equations
coupled with equations for species mass conservation and vibrational
energy conservation:
∂U ∂F i;inv − F i;vis
 W
_ (1)
∂t ∂xi
The conserved variables vector U can be written as
U  ρ; ρs ; ρu; ρv; ρw; Ev;m ; ET s ϵ Ns ; m ϵ Nm (2)
where u, v, and w are the velocity vector components; ρ is the mass
density of the fluid, ρs is the density of species s; and E is the total
energy given by
1 X X X
E  ρ u2i  Etr  Ev;m  ρs h0s (3)
2 i
Here, Ev is the total vibrational energy of molecules, Etr is the total
species trans-rotational energy, and h0s the standard enthalpy of
 Article in Advance / UNNIKRISHNAN ET AL. 3

X
formation of species. The vibrational energy for a level ν 0 is described −J s;i  Is;i − Y s I s;i (15)
as an anharmonic oscillator:
    ∂Y s
0 1 0 1 2 I s;i  −ρDs (16)
E  ωe ν 
v0 − ωe χ e ν  (4) ∂xi
2 2

Here, ωe is the vibration constant, and χ e is the anharmonicity Computation of mixture properties is done through Wilke’s mixing
constant. Anharmonicity effects are neglected in the present compu- rule [33]. The multispecies diffusion is modeled using Fick’s law, and
tational model. Equations (5) and (6) show the resulting expressions binary diffusion coefficients are computed using the Stephani model
for the vibrational energy per unit mass and total vibrational energy in [34]. The source term vector W _ is written as
terms of the vibrational temperature:
W
_  0; ω _ v;m ; 0T
_ s ; 0; 0; 0; ω (17)
θv;m
ev;m  Rm (5) ⋅
expθv;m ∕T v;m  − 1 where ωs is net mass production of species s given by
X  Nr   0 Nr   00 
Ev  ρm ev;m (6) X
NR Y ρk νk;r Y ρk νk;r
ω_ s  Ms 00
νs;r − 0 
νs;r kf;r − kb;r
m
r1 k1
Mk k1
Mk
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Equations (7) and (8) show the expressions for the rotational and (18)
translational energy per unit mass, and Eq. (8) gives the total trans-
rotational energy: where N R is the number of reactions and N r is the number of species
in reaction r. The forward reaction rate kf is expressed in the form of
er;s  Rs T tr (7) modified Arrhenius law as
 
T
3
et;s  Rs T tr (8) kf T c;f   AT βc;f exp − a (19)
2 T c;f
X
Etr  Et  Er  ρs et;s  ρs er;s  (9) The reaction rate model by Park [30] computes the backward rate kb
s using the forward reaction rate and equilibrium constant Keq as given
in Eq. (20). The use of controlling temperatures for forward (T c;f ) and
The flux vectors in Eq. (1) are split into inviscid and viscous backward (T c;b ) reaction rates is described in detail by Gnoffo et al.
terms as [35].
0 1 0 1
ρui 0 kf T c;b 
B C B kb T c;b   (20)
B C B C K eq T c;b 
B ρs ui C B −J s;i C
B C B C
B ρui u  δi1 p C B τi1 C
B C B C Gupta et al. [36] reported the reaction rates for air as modified
B C B C
τ C Arrhenius equations for both forward and backward reactions. This
F i;inv  B ρu
B i v  δ p C F
i2 C i;vis  B
B i2 C
B C B C model claims to be valid up to stagnation enthalpy of around
B ρui w  δi3 p C B τi3 C
B C B C 32 MJ∕kg (flow velocities of 8 km∕s), making it suitable for vast
B C B C
B Ev;m ui C B −qv;im − ev;m J m;i C majority of test cases in arc-heated tunnels. Both the reaction models
@ A @ A
P have originally been proposed for postshock dissociating flowfields.
E  pui τ u
ij j − qtr;i − q v;i − h J
r r;i Park and Lee [37] showed using quasi-1D simulations that, when the
assumption of uniform vibrational temperatures across different
(10) species was relaxed, the temperatures predicted by their formulation
agreed with experimental measurements (done using an electron
The pressure p is computed using Dalton’s law of partial pres- beam device) within 15% for N2. However, Park’s model has been
sure as widely used in computational codes with the assumption of a single
X vibrational temperature for all species, an assumption that is also used
p ρs Rs T tr (11) in the present work.
s For a single vibrational energy pool, the vibrational energy source
terms ω_ v;m can be written as
The viscous stress tensor τij and the translations and vibrational heat
flux vectors qtr;i and qv;i , respectively, are given by _ v;m  Qm;V−T  Qm;C−V
ω (21)
   
∂ui ∂uj 2 ∂uk where the exchange of energy between trans-rotational and vibra-
τij  μ   − μ δ (12)
∂xj ∂xi 3 ∂xk ij tional mode, denoted by Qm;V−T, is dictated by the Landau–Teller
equation and written as
∂T tr
qtr;i  −κ tr (13) ∂ev;m T v;m  e T  − ev;m T v;m 
∂xi Qm;V−T  ρm  ρm v;m tr (22)
∂t τm;V−T
X ∂T v;m
qv;i  − κv (14) Here Qm;C−V , the vibrational energy change due to chemical reaction,
m
∂xi
is given by
Temperature-dependent viscosity is modeled using Blottner’s curve _ m Dm0 
Qm;C−V  ω (23)
fits [31], and thermal diffusivities are computed using the modified
Eucken’s relation [32]. The diffusion fluxes are calculated using
modified Fick’s law as Dm0  ev;m for nonpreferential model 38 (24)
 4 Article in Advance / UNNIKRISHNAN ET AL.

III. Benchmarking hy2Foam B. Results and Discussion

A. Simulation of NASA IHF Case
The NASA IHF computations performed by Gökçen et al. with the
DPLR code [16] are chosen as a benchmark case for validating
hy2Foam. The geometry comprises a conical nozzle (area ratio of
30), a test box, and an iso-q test model placed at the nozzle exit. Our
objective is to verify the predicted flowfield along the centerline,
particularly the temperatures and species compositions along the
nozzle and across the shock ahead of the stagnation region. Hence,
two-dimensional axisymmetric numerical simulations of the flow in
the nozzle and the test section are performed.
The incoming flow, corresponding to the nozzle throat, is at a sonic
state corresponding to the arc-heater constrictor stagnation pressure,
stagnation enthalpy, and the nozzle’s mass flow rate. Because the flow
ahead of the throat is subsonic, the composition is expected to be near the
local thermochemical equilibrium. With the measured arc heater con-
strictor pressure and mass flow rates, the arc heater stagnation enthal-
py is calculated using the algorithm reported by Thompson et al. [2].
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For simplicity, grid independence study was performed for the
nozzle and shock region through separate simulations. The nozzle
wall boundary layer does not affect the stagnation region near the
model for the present problem. So, grid independence for the nozzle
flow simulation is studied by varying only the number of elements
along the nozzle. The variation of temperatures along the nozzle
centerline for three mesh sizes is shown in Fig. 3. The nozzle exit
temperatures are closely matching for all three mesh densities. The
refinement level of 120 × 50 is chosen for the nozzle part for further
studies.
The effect of grid refinement near the shock layer is studied
through a separate simulation of the test model performed with the
nozzle exit conditions as the freestream. The typical grid for this
simulation is shown in Fig. 4. As shown in Fig. 5, with increasing
refinement, the gradients at the shock and near the wall are captured
well. The near-model mesh density of 500 × 100 is chosen for further
studies.

Thompson et al. suggest the use of throat sonic velocity as the iteration C. Effect of Chemical Reaction Model
convergence parameter. However, it is observed that convergence is
sensitive to enthalpy’s initial guess value when using this parameter and Park’s reaction rate data [30] used in the reference case provide the
the throat’s mass flow rate is a better parameter to iterate toward con- forward reaction rates in Arrhenius format, with the backward reac-
tion rates computed using the equilibrium constants [4]. In contrast,
vergence regarding sensitivity to initial guess. Because this calculation
the reaction model of Gupta et al. [36] provides forward and back-
involves an iterative procedure, an in-house python code, h0 calc, which
ward reaction rates for air in a form compatible with the default
can interface with the NASA CEA tool [39], has been developed. The
reaction module of OpenFOAM, motivating us to add this model to
conditions at throat for the benchmark case computed with the h0 calc
hy2Foam. Because we could not find a comparison of the reaction
code agree well with the data reported by Gokcen et al. as shown in
models of Gupta and Park in the context of high-enthalpy nozzle
Table 1, and are used for the inflow conditions in the simulation. flows, which is necessary before recommending the use of this mo-
The Salome Platform [40] is used to generate the computational del, we have performed this comparison in this study.
mesh for the present simulations. Figure 2 shows the typical grid, The typical Mach contour for IHF case captured with hy2Foam
and the boundary conditions used in the present study. A no-slip with the Park’s reaction rate data is shown in Fig. 6. The variation of
velocity condition is applied on the nozzle wall and test-model species mass fractions along the C-D nozzle centerline is shown in
surface, both considered to be isothermal surfaces, fully catalytic Fig. 7 for both reaction rates. One can observe that the degree of
to species recombination. dissociation is high at the throat (X  0 m) and that the flow recom-
bines as it expands along the nozzle. Beyond a location, the reaction
time scales are much lower than the flow time scales, resulting in a
Table 1 Nozzle flow properties computed using h0 calc
frozen composition. Figures 8 and 9 show the variation of the trans-
Reference values lational and vibrational temperatures along the centerline. The vibra-
(Gökçen et al. [16]) Computed by h0 calc tional temperature also freezes as the vibrational-translational energy
Parameter At throat Stagnation At throat equilibration rate is much slower compared to the flow time scale.
Enthalpy, MJ∕kg —— 22.05 19.60 The sudden change in trend observed in translational and vibration-
Pressure, bar —— 4.66 2.64 al temperatures, between X  0.1 and 0.2 m, can be attributed to a
Temperature, K 6813 7356 6917 weak shock system that is observed in conical nozzles as reported in
Y N2 4.89 × 10−1 4.40 × 10−1 4.90 × 10−1 Ref. [41]. The computed variations of species concentrations and
temperatures for Park’s reaction rate data agree well with those
Y O2 —— 1.90 × 10−4 2.00 × 10−4
reported by Gökçen et al. [16], who also used the reaction rate data
YN 2.16 × 10−1 2.74 × 10−1 2.24 × 10−1 from Park. It is observed that Gupta’s reaction rates predict lesser
YO 2.07 × 10−1 2.09 × 10−1 2.10 × 10−1 recombination (and hence, lower temperatures) than that predicted by
Y NO —— 8.91 × 10−3 8.64 × 10−3 Park’s data.
Y Ar 6.79 × 10−2 6.79 × 10−2 6.79 × 10−2 Figures 10–13 show the variation of parameters near the test
Velocity, m∕s —— —— 1812.1 model’s stagnation region. Gupta’s reaction set predicts a larger
shock distance than Park’s reaction set. The slower variation of

Test box
Supersonic outlet

Y, m Wall (nozzle)
Wall (iso-q model)

Inlet

X, m
Fig. 2 Typical mesh used for the simulation of NASA IHF case.
 Article in Advance / UNNIKRISHNAN ET AL. 5

8000 8000
Trans-rotational temperature, Ttr Vibrational temperature, Tv Mesh size
7000 Mesh size 7000 55 × 50
55 × 50 120 × 50
6000 120 × 50 6000 260 × 50
260 × 50

Temperature, K
Temperature, K

5000 5000

4000 4000

3000 3000

2000 2000

1000 1000

0 0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
X, m X, m
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a) Trans-rotational temperature b) Vibrational temperature

Fig. 3 Effect of grid refinement on nozzle centerline temperatures.

IV. Studies in Plasma Wind Tunnel

Supersonic outlet

PWT Facility at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), ISRO,

was established in the year 2011 to test and evaluate TPS materials for
its proposed human-crewed reentry missions. The facility includes a
segmented arc heater with a rated power of 6 MW; a segmented
Inlet nozzle with configurable area ratios of 30, 75, 150, and 200; a walk-in
test section; and an environmental simulation system comprising a
diffuser system connected to vacuum spheres to maintain required
pressure in the test section. The overall capabilities of PWT are
summarized in Table 2.
For the present study, we consider the facility’s operation using a
Wall (iso-q conical nozzle with an area ratio of 150, throat diameter of 26 mm,
model) exit diameter of 318 mm, and semicone angle of 9°. The arc heater
stagnation conditions considered for this study are summarized in
Table 3.
Fig. 4 Typical mesh used for grid refinement studies in the shock layer.

A. Measurement of Vibrational Temperature Using Optical Emission

properties also agrees with the earlier observation of lower reaction Spectroscopy Technique
rates. In the shock layer too, it is seen that the shock stand-off dis- The vibrational temperature T v of N2 and CN molecules is mea-
tance, stagnation pressure, species concentrations, translation, and sured using OES. The Boltzmann plot method, which is a widely
vibrational temperatures from the simulations with Park’s reaction used spectroscopic method to determine the electronic, vibrational,
data agree with the reference. The reaction rate employed in reference and rotational temperatures in plasmas [42,43], has been employed
case being Park’s data, the close match of results with hy2Foam data to obtain the vibrational temperatures from the measured spectra of
with Park’s reaction rate data confirms the implementation of the two- N2 and CN vibrational bands. A detailed description of the diato-
temperature model in hy2Foam. mic molecules’ spectral terms may be found in Refs. [44,45]. The

12000 12000
Translational temperature, Ttr Vibrational Temperature, Tv
Mesh size Mesh size
50 × 80 50 × 80
10000 10000
100 × 100 100 × 100
500 × 100 500 × 100
8000 1000 × 200
Temperature, K

8000
Temperature, K

1000 × 200

6000 6000

4000 4000

2000 2000

0 0
1.032 1.034 1.036 1.038 1.040 1.042 1.044 1.046 1.032 1.034 1.036 1.038 1.040 1.042 1.044 1.046
X, m X, m
a) Trans-rotational temperature b) Vibrational temperature
Fig. 5 Effect of grid refinement on shock layer temperatures.
 6 Article in Advance / UNNIKRISHNAN ET AL.

Y, m

X, m
Fig. 6 Mach contours for benchmark case with hy2Foam (for Park’s reaction data).

8000
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0.6 Tv, hy2Foam

7000 Tv, DPLR
Gupta
N2
0.5 Park
Species mass fraction, Yi

6000

Temperature, K
Yi, DPLR [16] Yi, hy2Foam 5000
0.4
Gupta
Park 4000
0.3
3000
0.2
2000

0.1 1000
N
0
0.0 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
X, m
X, m
Fig. 9 Variation of Tv along nozzle centerline.
Fig. 7 Variation of mass fraction along nozzle centerline.

12000
8000 Ttr, DPLR [16] Ttr, hy2Foam
Ttr, DPLR [16] TTR, hy2Foam Gupta
7000 Gupta 10000 Park

6000 Park
Temperature, K

8000
Temperature, K

5000
6000
4000

3000 4000

2000 2000

1000
0
0 1.032 1.034 1.036 1.038 1.040 1.042 1.044 1.046
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 X, m
X, m
Fig. 10 Ttr at the shock location.
Fig. 8 Variation of Ttr along nozzle centerline.

We explore the Boltzmann plot method to measure the stagnation

vibrational temperature (temperature of vibrational degrees of
freedom) is the parameter of Gibbs canonical distribution of mole-
cules over the vibrational energy. Kelly et al. [46] recently reported
good agreement between the computed excitation temperatures
with those measured using the Boltzmann plot method for an ioni-
zing expanding flow of argon in a high-enthalpy flow test facility.
In the presence of significant concentrations of dissociated species,
the vibrational energy distribution may be represented by the Boltz-
mann distribution at lower levels, with the higher levels (beyond
level 8) expected to deviate from the Boltzmann distribution [18,47].
region’s temperatures, where the vibrational and translational mo-
des are near equilibrium. We have also used the method to examine
the vibration temperatures in the nozzle region. We consider two
approaches for estimating the vibrational temperature in the nozzle
region. In the first one, we consider transitions among the lower
levels, which are expected to follow the Boltzmann distribution [18]
and hence agree with the computed vibrational temperature. In the
second approach, we consider transitions among the higher levels,
which are overpopulated and may not match the temperatures of
lower levels.
 Article in Advance / UNNIKRISHNAN ET AL. 7

12000 Table 2 Overall capabilities of PWT

Tv, DPLR [16] Tv, hy2Foam
Gupta S. no. Parameter Value
10000
Park 1 Operating power Up to 6.0 MW
2 Arc heater pressure Up to 4 bar
8000 3 Arc heater throat 26 mm
Temperature, K

4 Nozzle area ratio 30, 75, 150, 200

5 Stagnation enthalpy 10–30 MJ∕kg
6000 6 Model size Up to 150 mm diam.
7 Model stagnation pressure 3–20 kPa
4000

2000 Table 3 Arc heater conditions for PWT case

Computed with h0 calc

0
1.032 1.034 1.036 1.038 1.040 1.042 1.044 1.046 Parameter Stagnation Throat
X, m Enthalpy, MJ∕kg 22.05 20.42
Pressure, bar 3.20 1.833
Fig. 11 Tv at the shock location. Temperature, K 7473 7102
Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS on February 22, 2023 | http://arc.aiaa.org | DOI: 10.2514/1.T6357

Mass fractions
N2 2.98 × 10−1 3.29 × 10−1
0.7 Yi, DPLR [16] Yi, hy2Foam O2 9.00 × 10−5 8.00 × 10−5
Gupta N 3.05 × 10−1 2.74 × 10−1
0.6 Park O 1.78 × 10−1 1.78 × 10−1
NO 5.01 × 10−3 4.67 × 10−3
Species mass fraction

0.5 N2 Ar 2.13 × 10−1 2.13 × 10−1

0.4 Velocity, m∕s —— 1805

0.3 N

Here v 0 and v 0 0 are vibrational quantum numbers of the upper and

0.2
lower states; I v 0 v 0 0 is the measured intensity, which is the area under
the curve of each vibrational spectral transition; Av 0 v 0 0 is the Einstein
0.1
coefficient; gv is the statistical weight of the vibrational level of the
NO
0.0 molecule; T VE is the vibrational temperature; kB is the Boltzmann
constant; and Ev 0 is the vibrational energy [Eq. (4)]. Further simplify-
1.032 1.034 1.036 1.038 1.040 1.042 1.044 1.046 ing Eq. (25), we have
X, m
 
I 0 00λ 0 00 E 0
Fig. 12 Species mass fraction at shock location. ln v v v v − v C (26)
gν Av 0 v 0 0 kB T VE

18 The slope m of the above equation, m  −1∕kB T VE , gives

the vibrational temperature T v , which is obtained by plotting
16
ln I v 0 v 0 0 λv 0 v 0 0 ∕gν Av 0 v 0 0  versus Ev 0 ; gv  1 for the vibrational levels
14 v of the diatomic molecules.
Pressure, DPLR/IHF data [16]
The schematic of the experimental setup for the spectroscopic
12 Pressure, hy2Foam measurements in the PWT is shown in Fig. 14. The light was collected
Pressure, kPa

Gupta using a lens collimator located on the test-section wall and transported
10 Park to the spectrometer using an optical fiber of 1 mm diameter and a
8 collimating lens arrangement of focal length 11 mm. The lines of sight
formed by the lens-fiber combination are depicted in Fig. 14 with a
6 dashed line. The line of sight is collimated to see a narrow width of the
plasma along the line of sight. The diameter of the cross section of the
4
viewing cone is ∼3 cm at the central axis. The line of sight is designed
2 in such a way that, when the model is introduced, the line of sight
grazes the model tip on the nozzle axis and collects emissions from
0 the shock layer formed in the vicinity of the model. In absence of the
1.032 1.034 1.036 1.038 1.040 1.042 1.044 1.046 1.048 model, the lines of sight collect light from the expanding plasma
X, m plume flowing out of the nozzle. The light collected from the lens-
Fig. 13 Pressure at shock location. fiber combination is brought out of the test section using fiber feed-
throughs. The collected light from the above-mentioned lines of sight
is then split into three fibers using a trifurcated fiber assembly and
1. Measurement Methodology and Experimental Setup fed into three spectrometer channels as shown in the Fig. 14. Each
channel of this spectrometer system (AvaSpec-3648, Avantes) has
The intensity of the spontaneous emission radiated by excited
a focal length of 75 mm with the Czerny–Turner configuration. The
molecules from upper vibrational level to lower vibrational level is
three spectrometer channels cover different wavelength ranges of
given by the following equation [44,48]:
300–547 nm (channel 1), 450–679 nm (channel 2), and 650–849 nm
(channel 3) and are fitted with individual detectors, each consisting of
hvv 0 v 0 0 3648 pixels as given in Table 4. Furthermore, each spectrometer
Iv 0 v 0 0  gυ Av 0 v 0 0 n0 e−Ev 0 ∕kB T VE  (25)
4π channel has a SubMiniature version A (SMA) based fiber-optic input
 8 Article in Advance / UNNIKRISHNAN ET AL.
Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS on February 22, 2023 | http://arc.aiaa.org | DOI: 10.2514/1.T6357

Fig. 14 Schematic of OES experimental setup in 6 MW PWT.

Table 4 Details of the spectrometer channels bands from the first positive system (N2 1), which mainly falls
between 450 and 680 nm wavelength range and is observed in second
Starting Ending Grating, Resolution,
channel of the spectrometer system. Two such bands are identified
Channel no. wavelength, nm wavelength, nm lines/mm nm
from N2 1 corresponding to transition Bπ 3g − AΣ3 u ; Δν  3 and 4
1 300 547 1200 0.13
2 450 679 1200 0.12 are identified as shown in Fig. 15a.
3 640 849 1200 0.10 When a carbon phenolic ablative model is introduced in the
plume, much of the observed spectral lines fall in the wavelength
range of 300–550 nm and hence been observed by the first spec-
trometer channel. The emission spectra from the discharge phase
arrangement with a 10-micron slit at the entrance. The AvaSpec-3648 after the carbon phenolic model is introduced are dominated by the
spectrometer system is equipped with a 14-bit AD converter and USB CN bands, as shown in Fig. 15b. Two CN bands are identified,
2.0 high-speed computer interface, and all three channels are externally which correspond to transition B2 Σ − X2 Σ , with Δν  0 and −1.
synchronized to trigger at the same time. All three spectrometer Analyzing these N2 and CN bands in different phases of discharges,
channels are intensity and wavelength calibrated. The wavelength i.e., with and without the model, the vibrational temperatures are
calibration is carried out using a Fisher Scientific make argon and measured and compared with the estimated ones through simula-
mercury pen ray light sources. The intensity calibration is carried out tions. The errors in the deduced temperatures mainly originate from
using an integrated sphere (made by Labsphere, Inc.) of known ambiguities in the numerical fits and from the uncertainties in the
spectral radiance in the units of photons∕cm2 ⋅ Sr ⋅ nm ⋅ s. transition probabilities used for obtaining the Boltzmann plot.
The error in fitting of the measured spectra depends on the quality
B. Results and Discussion of the spectrum (purity and signal-to-noise ratio). As seen from
The molecular spectra of N2 and CN are obtained at the steady Figs. 15a and 15b, the spectra measured from the plasma-jet in the
phase of the discharge with variable exposure times. Figure 15a steady state have very good signal strength, and the signal-to-noise
contains the spectra recorded in all the three channels of the spec- ratio is ∼1% considering the white noise. The fitting error in the
trometer system from the freestream (plume in the model’s absence). linear fit to the data points in Boltzmann plot is ∼2%. The main error
The emission spectra in Fig. 15a are dominated by N2 molecular arises from the transition probabilities, which are reported to be

a) b)
Fig. 15 a) Captured spectrum without model; b) captured spectrum with carbon phenolic ablative model.
 Article in Advance / UNNIKRISHNAN ET AL. 9

a) b)
Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS on February 22, 2023 | http://arc.aiaa.org | DOI: 10.2514/1.T6357

Fig. 16 a) Calibrated spectra of experimental data for CN molecule, Δν
0, and identification of different vibrational transitions. b) The Boltzmann plot
for the same band.

∼10% [40]. Hence, an error of 10% is considered in our estimations.
Similar error estimations are reported in the Boltzmann plot
methods claiming an uncertainty of ∼10–13% in the temperature
estimations [49,50].
1. Vibrational Temperature of CN Molecules
The introduction of the carbon phenolic model leads to the for-
mation of CN near the model surface, and molecular spectra of CN
molecule are observed when the model is introduced. The two CN
spectral bands observed in plasma (with model phase) are shown in
Fig. 15b. Figure 16a shows the calibrated experimental spectra of
CN corresponding to Δν  0, falling in the wavelength range of
384–389 nm. Three vibrational transitions are identified (marked in
Fig. 16a in this region of spectra and given in Table 5) and are used
to construct the Boltzmann plot, and the vibrational temperature
is deduced. The upper-level vibrational energies are calculated using
Eq. (25) by taking ωe  2163.9 cm−1 and ωe χ e  20.8 cm−1 for
B2 Σ [51]. Figure 16b shows the required Boltzmann plot for tran-
sition corresponding to Δν  0 of the CN, where the symbols are the
data points, and the solid line is the linear best fit to the data. The slope
m  −1.70 × 10−4 , gives the vibrational temperature of 8500 K 
850 K using Eq. (26). Similarly, for the CN band corresponding to
Δν  −1, falling in the wavelength range of 412–422 nm, this region
of spectra is calibrated, and data are shown in Fig. 17a. Three vibra-
tional transitions, marked in Fig. 17a and also given in Table 6, are
used to construct the Boltzmann plot, and the vibrational tempera-
ture is deduced. The calculation for the vibrational upper energy
levels remains the same as the Δν  0 band. Figure 17b shows the
required Boltzmann plot for transition corresponding to Δν  −1 of
the CN molecule, where the symbols are the data points, and the solid

Table 5 Available transitions for CN, Δν
0 band Table 6 Available transitions for CN, Δν
−1 band

Wavelength observed, Transition Wavelength, Wavelength observed, Transition Wavelength,

Transition nm probability nm Transition nm probability nm
0–0 388.2 1.53 × 107 387.7 1–2 419.5 1.72 × 106 419.2
1–1 387.0 1.28 × 107 386.5 2–3 417.9 2.17 × 106 417.5
2–2 386.1 1.08 × 107 385.5 3–4 416.6 2.47 × 106 416.2

a) b)
Fig. 17 a) Calibrated spectra of experimental data for CN molecule, Δν
−1, and identification of different vibrational transitions. b) The Boltzmann
plot for the same band.
 10 Article in Advance / UNNIKRISHNAN ET AL.

22 36
-4
20 Slope = -3.40 x 10
Absolute Intensity x 10 (photon / cm / Sr)

34 Measured Temperature
18
2

~ 4231 K
573.9 32
16
(12-8) 578.5
14 (11-7) 30
569.9

ln (I /A)
13

12
(13-9) 28 (11-7) (12-8) (13-9)
Air Plasma
10 Without model
8 26

6 24
4
22
2

0 20
565 570 575 580 585 590 595 600 17000 18000 19000 20000 21000 22000
Wavelength (nm) -1
Energy (cm )
a) b)
Fig. 18 a) Calibrated spectra of experimental data for N2 1, Δν
4, and identification of different vibrational transitions. b) The Boltzmann plot for the
Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS on February 22, 2023 | http://arc.aiaa.org | DOI: 10.2514/1.T6357

same band.

line is the linear best fit to the data. The slope m  −1.74 × 10−4 temperature is deduced. The vibrational upper-level energies are
gives the vibrational temperature of 8300 K  800 K using Eq. (26). calculated using Eq. (25) by taking ωe  1733 cm−1 and ωe χ e 
It is important to note that the band spectra are contaminated with the 14.412 cm−1 for Bπ 3g transition [53]. Figure 18b shows the required
atomic and molecular spectral lines. Hence, not all transitions are Boltzmann plot for transition corresponding to Δν  4 of the N2 first
used for temperature estimation. For example, the 0–1 transition of positive system, where the symbols are the data points, and the solid
CN Δυ  −1 molecular band at 421.4 nm is possibly contaminated line is the linear best fit to the data. The slope m  −3.40 × 10−4
by the spectral band of N2 second positive system at ∼420 nm [52]. gives the vibrational temperature of 4200  400 K using Eq. (26).
Similarly, for the nitrogen first positive system corresponding to
2. Vibrational Temperature of N2 Molecules Δν  3, falling in the wavelength range of 600–680 nm, the cali-
The two N2 bands from the dry-air phase of discharge, shown in brated spectra recorded in the wavelength range of 600–680 nm are
Fig. 15a, are analyzed further. Figure 18a shows the calibrated shown in Fig. 19a. Note that this N2 spectral band is significantly
experimental spectra of nitrogen first positive system corresponding contaminated by the hydrogen Fulcher band in the wavelength range
to Δν  4, falling in the wavelength range of 565–600 nm. Calibra- of ∼610–650 nm as marked in Fig. 19a [54]. Hence, the measured
tion includes background subtraction, wavelength calibration, and spectral lines in the wavelength range of ∼610–650 are not consid-
absolute intensity calibration. The three vibrational transitions, ered for the temperature estimation. The three vibrational transitions,
marked in Fig. 18a in this region of spectra and also given in marked in Fig. 19a and also given in Table 8, are used to construct
Table 7, are used to construct the Boltzmann plot, and the vibrational the Boltzmann plot, and the vibrational temperature is deduced. The

Table 7 Available transitions for N2 1, Δν
4 band Table 8 Available transitions for N2 1, Δν
3 band
Wavelength Transition Wavelength, nm Wavelength Transition Wavelength, nm
Transition observed, nm probability [55] [55] Transition observed, nm probability [55] [55]
11–7 578.5 9.58 × 104 579.2 5–2 664.3 5.95 × 104 668.9
12–8 573.9 1.06 × 105 574.4 6–3 658.0 8.21 × 104 660.8
13–9 569.9 1.11 × 105 569.6 7–4 651.6 9.61 × 104 653.0

10 36
-4
Air Plasma Slope = -3.16 x 10
(photon / cm / Sr)

9 Without model Measured Temperature

34
~ 4586 K
2

8
32
7
658.0 30
6
ln (I /A)

Hα Fulcher Band (6-3) 664.3

13

651.6
Absolute Intensity x 10

5 (7-4) (5-2) 28
(5-2) (6-3)
(7-4)
4
26
3
24
2

1 22

0 20
610 620 630 640 650 660 670 680 8000 9000 10000 11000 12000 13000
a) Wavelength (nm) b) Energy (cm-1)

Fig. 19 a) Calibrated spectra of experimental data for N2 1, Δν
3, and identification of different vibrational transitions. b) The Boltzmann plot for the
same band.
 Article in Advance / UNNIKRISHNAN ET AL. 11

Test box

Supersonic outlet
Wall
(Hemispherical
Y, m model)
Wall (nozzle)

Inlet

X, m
Fig. 20 Mesh used for PWT simulation.
Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS on February 22, 2023 | http://arc.aiaa.org | DOI: 10.2514/1.T6357

Fig. 21 Mach contours for PWT nozzle.

calculation of the vibrational upper energy levels remains the same 0.5
as Δν  4 band. Figure 19b shows the required Boltzmann plot Park
for transition corresponding to Δν  3 of the N2 first positive N2
Gupta
system, where the symbols are the data points, and the solid line is 0.4
the linear best fit to the data. The slope m  −3.16 × 10−4 gives the
vibrational temperature of 4500 K  450 K using Eq. (26), which
Mass fractions

agrees with the value estimated from the transition between higher 0.3 N
energy levels.

3. Comparison with CFD Results for Plasma Wind Tunnel 0.2

Ar O
Axisymmetric simulations are performed for the PWT nozzle with
hy2Foam with all computational models that are used in the bench- 0.1
mark case. The grid used for the simulation is shown in Fig. 20. The
Mach contour for the PWT nozzle is shown in Fig. 21. The variation
of species mass fraction along the nozzle centerline is shown in 0.0 NO
Fig. 22. The variation of temperatures along the nozzle centerline
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2
is shown in Fig. 23. It may be seen that the vibrational temperature X, m
settles at a value around 3400 K (at X  0.2 m) and remains constant
throughout the nozzle and in the test section. The free jet’s mea- Fig. 22 Variation of mass fraction along nozzle centerline.
sured vibrational temperature from N2 first positive using OES is
superimposed in the plot. The measured vibrational temperatures it is difficult to identify which of the two reaction models is better
(4200  400 K and 4500  450 K) are higher than the computed suited for this application. The temperature profile in the shock layer
value of 3400 K by nearly 20% (relative to the measured values). This obtained from computations is compared with the OES measure-
is similar to the observation on deviation between the computed and ments in Fig. 25. The CFD results indicate that the flow is approach-
measured values of the electronic excitation temperatures in N2 by ing thermal equilibrium near the test model surface. The measured
Winter et al. [19]. Furthermore, the vibrational temperature remains vibrational temperature in shock layer using the CN band matches
constant across the jet cross section in the freestream as shown in the quite well with the peak vibrational temperature estimated from CFD
CFD simulation result in Fig. 24. Thus, the line-averaged measure- data. The CN emissions originate only when the carbon-phenolic
ments of OES would not differ significantly from the centerline model is introduced and hence is located in close proximity of
values. The difference in estimated vibrational temperatures between the model within the shock layer. Hence, the estimated temperature
the two reaction models is smaller than the measurement uncertainty from the CN molecular bond represents the local temperature near
and the difference between measurements and computations. Hence, the model.
 12 Article in Advance / UNNIKRISHNAN ET AL.

8000
the N2 1 in the freestream. The Boltzmann plot experimental tech-
hy2Foam (Park) hy2Foam (Gupta) Tv N2 1PS, ∆v=3
Ttr Ttr nique is used to measure the vibrational temperature of the flowfield.
7000 Tv N2 1PS, ∆v=4
Tv Tv N2 vibrational transitions are used to measure the freestream vibra-
6000
tional temperature, and the vibrational bands of CN are used to
measure the shock region’s temperature near a carbon phenolic
ablative model. For computations, the open-source tool hy2Foam
Temperature, K

5000
has been validated and used to compute the flow properties in the
4000 nozzle and the test section. The results of hy2Foam compares well
with the computations reported by Gökçen et al. [16] and also agree
3000 with the experimentally measured vibrational temperature in the
shock layer of the test model in PWT. Further, in spite of the
2000 significant thermochemical nonequilibrium in the nozzle, there is
good agreement between the vibration temperatures obtained from
1000 the transitions among higher and lower energy levels of N2 using the
Boltzmann plot method, which suggests that the vibrational modes
0 are in thermal equilibrium in PWT nozzle freestream. Whether the
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2
measured vibrational temperatures for the other species (NO) agree
X ,m with those of N2 will be the subject of future study.
Fig. 23 Comparison of computed temperatures along nozzle centerline
Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS on February 22, 2023 | http://arc.aiaa.org | DOI: 10.2514/1.T6357

and measured vibrational temperature at nozzle exit using OES.

Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the support from Jayaprakash J., Deputy
4000 Director, Solid Propulsion and Research Entity (SPRE), Vikram
Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), and K. Krishnaraj, Head of Arc
3500 Plasma Laboratory, toward carrying out and publishing this work.
The authors would also like to acknowledge the support provided by
Vibrational temperature, K

3000 Vincent Cassaeu, lead developer of hy2Foam, for providing support

with the solver during this work. Contributions from Ranjana
2500 Manchanda, Nilam Ramaiya, M. B. Chowdhuri, Abha Kanik, and
D. Raju, Institute of Plasma Research, in the initial stages of spectro-
2000 scopic measurements and analysis, carried out at the Plasma Wind
Tunnel, are also sincerely acknowledged. The authors also acknowl-
1500 edge the contributions of Viren Menezes, Indian Institute of Tech-
nology Bombay, and T. Jayachandran, former Deputy Director,
1000 VSSC, who has been supporting this work from the beginning.
500
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