Reduced two-level approach for air kinetics in recombination regime

The possibility of using reduced model, that account for non-Boltzmann vibrational distributions for nitrogen monoxide kinetics has been explored. The basic idea is that the rate coefficients, which are proportional to the tail of the vibrational distribution function, are strictly correlated to reactant density rather than to vibrational temperature, which depend on the low energy distribution. The model consider the rate coefficients as a function of the population of the last vibrational level of the relevant species, which evolution is calculated with a proper kinetic equation. © 2011 American Institute of Physics.