A numerical method is presented for calculating the steady-state output power and other operating characteristics of a continuous flow chemical laser. The method is based upon a generalization of Emanuel's radiation-transport-theory description of a chemical laser to the case of a fully two-dimensional flow field. The steady state solution is achieved by means of a time-like iterative procedure which represents the transient the system would undergo if the radiative time scale were so slow as to be comparable to the fluid dynamical and chemical rate timescales. The method may be used in conjunction with any two-dimensional time-marching multicomponent reactive fluid dynamics computer code. The results of a typical calculation using the RICE code presented. A prescription is given for obtaining an approximate steady-state lasing solution directly from the results of a steady-state calculation without lasing.

John Ramshaw was employed at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory at the time of writing.