Coupled heat transfer characteristics on gas-solid reacting interface in carbon-oxygen dissociating environment for spacecraft entry flow

Abstract

Planetary spacecrafts, such as return capsules and Mars entry vehicles, enter the atmosphere at extremely high speeds, and therefore high-enthalpy dissociated aerodynamic environment occurs around the heat shield (Gnoffo, 1999). Such severe environment brings complex interface heat transfer processes between the gas and solid domains. Moreover, deep space exploration, such as hypersonic Mars entry mission, causes an additional carbon-oxygen (C-O) reacting environment, which further brings some new challenges to the evaluation of interface heat transfer characteristics (Reynier, 2014). Accurate and reliable prediction of interface heat transfer is the premise and basis for effectively ensuring the safety of the spacecraft thermal protection system (TPS), reducing design redundancy and increasing the effective payload (Duffa, 2013). With the continuous and in-depth development of high-performance computing, using the numerical technology to characterize fluid mechanics, structural heat transfer, interface chemistry and their interaction has become an effective way to solve this problem (Milos and Rasky, 1994). Early researches on interface heat transfer characteristics were done by solving the compressible gas dynamics equations with simple mathematical closure on the solid surface (Wright, et al., 2010). No interface chemistry was the * State Key Laboratory of Aerodynamics, China Aerodynamics Research and Development Center 6 Second Ringroad South Section, Mianyang, Sichuan, 621000, P. R. China E-mail: xiaofeng.yang@cardc.cn ** College of Aeronautics and Astronautics, National University of Defense Technology 109 Deya Road, Changsha, Hunan, 410073, P. R. China