Coupled Simulations of Shoulder Ablation of a Conceptual Aeroshell

Le résumé fourni par la source

The current study investigates how uncoupled and coupled numerical simulations of flow dynamics and material response affect ablation around the shoulder region of an entry capsule heatshield in space missions like the Mars Sample Return (MSR) project. A new computational tool named Ares, developed at NASA Ames Research Center (ARC), is applied to carry out the coupled simulations, and the thermal protection system (TPS) material considered is three-dimensional mid-density carbon phenolic (3MDCP). First, an experimental campaign in an Interactive Heating Facility (IHF) at NASA ARC is used to validate the material model and the solver. Then an Earth-entry flight trajectory is considered to investigate the coupling effects on an MSR-relevant aeroshell for the current work. An axisymmetric domain is used to maintain computational efficiency due to the simple aeroshell geometry and the nature of freestream with zero-degree angle of attack. Thermodynamics inside the solid domain and near the shoulder is compared between coupled and uncoupled simulations at different times.Interestingly, it has been observed that coupled simulations lead to earlier and larger recessions throughout the heat shield surface. In addition, coupled simulations are closer to the experiment and recess the heat shield surface more physically. Overall, this investigation demonstratesAres’s current capability to conduct coupled simulations for an aeroshell used in planetary entry missions.

Ce résumé expose les affirmations des auteurs. BNTIC ne l’interprète pas comme une validation indépendante des résultats.