A three-dimensional numerical simulation model that considers the effect of the angle of attack was developed to evaluate plasma flows around reentry vehicles. In this simulation model, thermochemical nonequilibrium of flowfields is considered by using a four-temperature model for high-accuracy simulations. Numerical simulations were performed for the orbital reentry experiment of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and the results were compared with experimental data to validate the simulation model. A comparison of measured and predicted results showed good agreement. Moreover, to evaluate the effect of the angle of attack, we performed numerical simulations around the Atmospheric Reentry Demonstrator of the European Space Agency by using an axisymmetric model and a three-dimensional model. Although there were no differences in the flowfields in the shock layer between the results of the axisymmetric and the three-dimensional models, the formation of the electron number density, which is an important parameter in evaluating radio-frequency blackout, was greatly changed in the wake region when a non-zero angle of attack was considered. Additionally, the number of altitudes at which radio-frequency blackout was predicted in the numerical simulations declined when using the three-dimensional model for considering the angle of attack.

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A numerical simulation model of plasma flows and electromagnetic waves around a vehicle was developed to predict a radio frequency blackout. Plasma flows in the shock layer and the wake region were calculated using a computational fluid dynamics technique with a three-dimensional model. A finite-catalytic wall condition known to affect plasma properties, such as the number density of electrons, was considered for accurate prediction. A parametric study was performed to investigate the effect of uncertainty in the chemical reaction rate model on evaluating a radio frequency blackout. The behavior of electromagnetic waves in plasma was investigated using a frequency-dependent finite-difference time-domain method. Numerical simulations of reentry blackout were performed for the Atmospheric Reentry Demonstrator mission at various altitudes. The plasma flows and the complex movement of electromagnetic waves around the Atmospheric Reentry Demonstrator vehicle were clarified. The predicted signal loss profile was then directly compared with the experimental flight data to validate the present models. The numerical results generally reproduced the trends over altitudes of the measured data. It is suggested that the present simulation model can be used to investigate the radio frequency blackout and signal loss of electromagnetic waves in the communication of a reentry vehicle. It was confirmed that high associative ionization reaction rates contribute to reducing the electron density in the wake region and radio frequency blackout. It is suggested that the accuracy of predicting the signal loss improved when considering the uncertainty in the chemical reaction model for associative ionizations.