CFD Analysis of radiative heat loading on hypervelocity re-entry vehicles

Abstract

Space exploration missions may include atmospheric entries at very high velocities (e.g. sample-return, entries from hyperbolic orbits) or into an atmosphere with highly radiative constituents (e.g. Mars, Titan). The effects of gas radiation in the shock layer and wake flows may become significant at such flight conditions. Hence, accurate CFD analysis of these flows requires adequate modeling of the local absorption and emission properties and the energy transport by radiation. This paper presents a brief overview of numerical techniques for the integration of radiation effects in atmospheric entry vehicle simulations, and the subsequent prediction of radiative heat loading. Brief reviews are given of the available models for excited state populations spectral properties and radiative energy transport. Particular emphasis is given to the Monte Carlo transport models which enable accurate solutions on complex grid topologies in a computationally efficient manner.