Numerical Rebuilding of Shock Tube Experiments in CO2 Flow under Conditions Relevant for Mars Entry Probes

Abstract

In the framework of project SACOMAR (Key Technologies for Safe and Controlled Martian Entry) of the European Union FP7 programme, key issues regarding improvement of experimental and numerical tools for erothermodynamic design of entry vehicles at Martian entry flow conditions were addressed. Improvement of related physical gas models taking into account high quality experimental data and implementation into CFD codes were achieved by bringing together the expertise and capabilities of various research institutions, aerospace companies and test facilities in the EU and Russia. Areas of potential improvement over the existing thermochemistry models were evaluated with respect to nonequilibrium effects, transport properties and surface chemistry. This paper covers a subtask of SACOMAR concerning numerical rebuilding of shock tunnel experiments in CO_2 flow by CFD using the TAU code and comparison of the numerical results to the experimental data. The related tests were performed at the High Enthalpy Shock Tunnel Göttingen HEG of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the related CFD calculations were performed by Airbus DS utilizing the improved aerothermal CO_2 modeling.