The Concept of a Perfectly Stirred Reactor as a Chemical Laser Device

An analytical study of a chemical laser system based on the concept of a stirred reactor cavity is described. The stirred reactor concept is well established in fuel combustion studies as a device which provides steady-state spatially uniform reaction products in a wide degree of nonequilibrium. Because of the uniform distribution of emitters, a stirred reactor laser cavity should have inherently better beam quality than mixing/reacting nozzle flow devices; however, it remains to be established if a stirred reactor cavity is feasible in practice. Numerical results are presented with coupled chemical kinetic-radiative depopulation rates which show that significant power levels are possible. Results for small signal gain (no power) are also presented. The numerical technique enables prescribed cavity radiation flux densities from zero to infinity to be used. A marked sensitivity to collisional deactivation (relaxation) rates was determined numerically, with predicted power levels attainable dependent primarily on these rates. (Author) Prepared in cooperation with ARO, Inc., Tullahoma, Tenn. Rept. no. ARO-ETF-TR-72-67.