Dynamic-Kinetic Evolution of a Single Plume of Interacting Species

The coupled dynamic and kinetic evolution of chemical species are considered for an assumed exhaust plume from an SST at proposed flight altitudes of about 20 km. A systematic effort is made to determine whether chemical and radiative interactions seriously alter the exhaust specie distributions determined on the basis of scale-dependent diffusion alone. In the present coupled treatment, use is made of the plume dispersion coefficients from previous dynamic calculations, and a moderately complex kinetic mechanism is incorporated. The sensitivity to transport rates is presented, and the role of inhomogeneity correlations is discussed.