GALCIT Colloquium

Predicting what happens as a hypersonic vehicle flies through the atmosphere involves a lot of interesting physics. Strong shockwaves superheat air to thousands of degrees producing reactive atomic oxygen and nitrogen. The vehicle heat shield must simultaneously withstand high temperatures and intense surface chemistry. This talk describes two milestone achievements. In the first half, I will describe a new simulation method that bridges quantum chemistry to macroscopic flow, leading to a new gas-phase chemistry model for CFD simulations. In the second half, I will explain how molecular beam gas-surface scattering experiments have led to a new air-carbon ablation model now being used by the hypersonics community.