Simulation of plume impingement on flat plates via the Fokker-Planck approach

Abstract

Simulations of plume impingement on a flat plate using molecular nitrogen were performed by employing the Fokker-Planck (FP) and Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) methods. The FP results are in very good agreement with numerical results achieved using the DSMC method while providing a 4 fold speed up when applying the same spatial and temporal resolution. The numerical results were also compared to experimental data measured at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) Goettingen. Both the FP as well as DSMC methods show good agreement with experimental data and reproduce behavior found in literature.