Sensitivity Analysis of Ionization in Two-Temperature Models of Hypersonic Air Flows

What is it about?

Plasma is formed around hypersonic vehicles by the strong shock wave formed at their leading edge. Models to predict plasma formation in hypersonic flows can have significant uncertainties under some conditions. This uncertainty is largely due to parameters in the model that are not well known, particularly parameters relating to chemical reactions. In this study, we applied sensitivity analysis techniques to identify the input parameters that contribute most significantly to the uncertainty in plasma formation predictions. By reporting on the most important parameters influencing model uncertainty, we can quantitatively inform which parameters should be refined in future efforts to improve the model accuracy.

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