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Two plasma wind tunnels for the simulation of conditions encountered by space vehicles during planetary entry, and for the development and qualification of heat protection material, are in use at the Institute for Space Systems. The plasma is produced by a magnetoplasmadynamic (MPD) accelerator, specially designed for the use of gas mixtures such as N 2 /O 2 and carbon containing gas mixtures. At high mass flow rates and low power levels a protective gas layer of argon is produced at the anode for a N 2 /O 2 flow. The influence of the Ar additive on a nitrogen plasma is investigated experimentally by means of electrostatic probes, mass spectrometry, pitot probes, and heat flux probes; and numerically with a program especially developed for the simulation of the high enthalpy flowfield of MPD accelerators. The existing numerical code for solving the chemical reactions within an air plasma was extended by argon/air reactions. A comparison between the experimental data set and the numerical simulation of the plasma flow is made for a N 2 and a N 2 /Ar plasma.

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