Abstract
The basic conservation equations for ionization relaxation behind shock waves of rare gases are coupled with a steady state Boltzmann equation for electron energy distribution functions and are extended to include the effects of non-Maxwell(NMx) electrons and boundary layers in shock tubes. Numerical calculations are conducted for Xe and Ne with systematic combinations of shock Mach number, initial pressure(p1) and shock tube diameter(D). It is found that NMx electrons really exist in the almost entire course of the relaxation and that the effects of NMx electrons and boundary layers appear in behaviors of macroscopic plasma parameters and ionization relaxation times. The present theoretical relaxation times are reasonably in good agreement with other experimental ones rearranged according to the magnitude of p1D value.
