Experimental study of the degree of ionization of a partially ionized gas flowing in a hypersonic nozzle

Abstract

The primary objective of this work was to experimentally determine the degree of ionization in a partially ionized gas flowing in a converging-diverging nozzle. Stagnation point Langmuir probes were employed for this purpose. Application of a theory of flow around a blunt, axisymmetric body, combined with experimentally determined probe characteristic curves, result in a value for the free stream degree of ionization at the point where the probe is located.