Abstract
The vibrational relaxation of oxygen by O2–O collision is studied using physical kinetics and molecular collision dynamics in the temperature range from 2,000 K to 7,000 K. This study shows that all the potential energy surfaces appearing in the collision must be taken into account to correctly calculate the rate constant, and that the Bethe-Teller theory is inadequate to describe vibrational relaxation in a strong non-equilibrium state. This study also validates existing experimental models widely used to describe vibrational relaxation.
