The paper deals with the kinetic theory of gas mixtures containing polyatomic molecules with several vibrational modes. The excitation of the rotational and vibrational degrees of freedom and dissociation are taken into account. The main attention is focused on the modeling of multi-level vibrational kinetics and vibration-dissociation coupling of linear three-atomic molecules. The model is applied for the study of shock heated gas flows and some new features of non-equilibrium kinetics of CO?,

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... behind shock waves are found. Here rt r , r ro t, T v ib r and r reac t are the corresponding relaxation times, 9 is the mean time of changing of macroscopic parameters. In this case the kinetic equations for the distribution functions / c ,-j for every chemical species c, rotational and vibrational energy levels j and i over velocity u c , time and space co-ordinates t and r can be written in the form: CP585, Rarefied Gas Dynamics: 22 nd International Symposium, edited by T. J. Bartel and M. A. Gallis