Aeroassisted planetary entry uses atmospheric drag to decelerate spacecraft from super-orbital to orbital or suborbital velocities. Numerical simulation of flow fields surrounding these spacecraft during hypersonic atmospheric entry is required to define aerothermal loads. The severe compression in the shock layer in front of the vehicle and subsequent, rapid expansion into the wake are characterized by high temperature, thermo-chemical nonequilibrium processes. Implicit algorithms required for efficient, stable computation of the governing equations involving disparate time scales of convection, diffusion, chemical reactions, and thermal relaxation are discussed. Robust point-implicit strategies are utilized in the initialization phase; less robust but more efficient line-implicit strategies are applied in the endgame. Applications to ballutes (balloon-like decelerators) in the atmospheres of Venus, Mars, Titan, Saturn, and Neptune and a Mars Sample Return Orbiter (MSRO) are featured. Examples are discussed where time-accurate simulation is required to achieve a steady-state solution.
Computational Aerothermodynamics in Aeroassist Applications
15th AIAA Computational Fluid Dynamics Conference ; 2001 ; Anaheim, CA, United States
2001-01-19
Preprint
Keine Angabe
Englisch
Computational Aerothermodynamics in Aeroassist Applications
Online Contents | 2003
|AIAA-2001-2632 Computational Aerothermodynamics in Aeroassist Applications
British Library Conference Proceedings | 2001
|Computational Aerothermodynamics
NTIS | 1987
|