Electron-Temperature and Ion-Density Measurements in Partially Ionized Boundary Layer on a Flat Plate

Abstract

Electron temperatures and ion densities have been measured with a cylindrical Langmuir probe in a partially ionized boundary layer flow on a flat plate. The experiments have been carried out in a low density plasma wind tunnel with argon as the test gas at local freestream Mach number of 3.5. The experimental and theoretical results have been compared, and a good agreement has been obtained for the electron temperature profile. For the ion density profile, the experimental results have qualitatively agreed fairly well with the theoretical ones.